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JIMMY QUIGG, OFFICE BOY 


Other Books for Boys 

BY 

HAROLD S. LATHAM 

Under Orders 
Marty Lends a Hand 




Bertrand pointed disgustedly to the side which Jimmy was 
printing 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 


HAROLD S^"|.ATHAM 

Author of “Marty Lends a Hand,” 
“Under Orders,” etc. 


ILLUSTRATED BY 

EDWARD C. CASWEL 


jQcto gotfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1920 

All rights reserved 



Copyright, 1920, 

Bt the MACMILLAN COMPANY 


Set up and electrotyped. Published, October, 1920 





OCT 27 1320 


©CI,A601125 


TO THE MEMORY 
OF 

UNCLE WILL 


\ 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER page 

I Jimmy Finds His Job i 

II The First Day 8 

III “The Big Idea” 14 

IV Red Ink 24 

V The Office Boys’ League 34 

VI Promotion 43 

VII “ A Boy Without a Country ”... 53 

VIII Fred Disappears 62 

IX Promise Hall 76 

X Jimmy Seeks Help 86 

XI A Clue 95 

XII Jimmy Decides 104 

XIII Westvale at 3 a. M 1 13 

XIV Suspicions 123 

XV In the Old Cellar 132 

XVI The Escape .142 

XVII The Boys on Guard 150 

XVIII Questions and Answers 163 

XIX Fred Visits Promise Hall 172 

XX “America” 182 

XXI Back on the Job 189 


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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 


Bertrand pointed disgustedly to the side which Jimmy 

was printing Frontispiece ^ 

TAOIKO 
PAGE . 

“Come, come, who did it?*’ 32 ^ 

“ But what’s it all about? What do we do?” . . 66 ^ 


Jimmy was breathless when he came up to the group of 
his friends 


148 


y 


\ 

M 


JIMMY QUIGG, OFFICE BOY 


CHAPTER I 

JIMMY FINDS HIS JOB 

J IMMY QUIGG was in search of a job — it was 
to be his first job. To be sure he had worked 
during school vacations, and one year he had even 
“ clerked ’’ — to use a dignified word that hardly 
fitted the task of general helper in the corner grocery 
— after school hours and Saturdays. Employment 
such as this, however, did not really count; he was 
now seeking a regular job, all the day and the year 
round. 

Jimmy was fourteen, but he might have been, 
so far as appearances went, sixteen. He was tall, 
slight, and dark of complexion, and his long face was 
topped by a bushy head of black hair. It was 
Jimmy’s eyes, however, that one noticed first. 
They always seemed to be laughing with you or at 


2 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

you, more frequently the latter, perhaps, than the 
former. Jimmy in all his days had never seen any- 
thing that had changed him from the conviction that 
life and fun were synonymous — and this despite the 
fact that money was scarce in the Quigg household 
and hardships better known there than comforts. 
Somehow he had the faculty, not of courting ad- 
versity but of making the best of it when it came 
along. And so it was on this particular June morn- 
ing when he set out from his home, a crowded four- 
room flat buried in the middle of a dingy tenement in 
the neighborhood of Washington Square, and pro- 
ceeded up Fifth Avenue on a journey that, in the 
eyes of youth, ends at the foot of the rainbow and 
the pot of gold. 

Jimmy’s mother had objected strenuously to his 
going to work; she had wanted him to have a good 
education. Her wishes had been respected until 
the home situation had become critical. The little 
life insurance which Mr. Quigg had left at his death 
some years before was used up, and the money which 
she was able to earn as a seamstress was barely 
enough to buy food. Came a day when she had to 
dispose, at a loss, of her one tiny Liberty Bond to 


3 


Jimmy Finds His Job 

pay the landlord. That was too much for Jimmy. 
He insisted that it was his duty to get a job and to 
take care of her, and she had finally wearily con- 
sented to his leaving school at the end of the sum- 
mer term. 

“ But what are you going to do? ” she had asked 
a dozen times since that morning now several weeks 
past, and “What are you going to do?” she had 
asked again that very day as he set out on his quest. 

“ I haven’t decided yet,” he had answered. “ All 
the big financiers are waiting for me to call on them. 
I’ll take up with the best of them; ” with that he had 
left her. 

But her question rang in his ears all the way up 
the avenue. What he going to do ? He hadn’t 
the remotest idea. He knew that in this big, teem- 
ing metropolis there must be work for him, work 
that would pay good money, and he would find it. 
It had been his thought to obtain employment within 
walking distance of his home and thereby save car 
fares, so almost at once he began to scrutinize each 
of the office buildings that he came to with a view 
of determining its “ job ” possibilities. He hated to 
make the break. He did not know that in almost 


4 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

any one of them he would have found a welcome, for 
just then boys were a scarcity in the business world. 

His eyes were finally caught and held by two large 
plate-glass windows, behind which were displayed 
books, and above which gold letters, running across 
the front of the building, proclaimed that “ The Ber- 
rington Publishing Company ” was housed there. 

Why not try here ? A book house wouldn’t be at 
all bad. He studied the window. If he could 
only show a knowledge of the business he would 
certainly land a job. Armed with a suggestion as 
to what he could do the chances would be very much 
better for him, he reasoned, than they would be if he 
applied for that great general thing — work. 

But he hadn’t an idea ; he didn’t know how books 
were made or sold! He was just about to turn 
away, lacking the courage to enter the fearsome- 
looking building, when he noticed the pattern which 
his fingers had absent-mindedly traced on the dirty 
window glass. 

“ It’s a wonder they wouldn’t wash their windows 
once in a while,” he muttered — and then he knew 
what he could do. 

Bravely he opened the door and walked in. 


Jimmy Finds His Job 5 

“ rd like to see the manager,” he said to the ad- 
vancing clerk, a boy hardly older than himself. 

“ What do you want, a job? ” the clerk responded. 

Jimmy nodded. 

“ Ask for Mr. Owens, sixth floor. I don’t know 
whether he’s got anything or not,” the clerk looked 
important, “ but he’ll probably see you. Ever been 
in the publishing business before? ” 

Jimmy shook his head. 

“ Bet it’s your first job,” Jimmy’s inquisitor con- 
tinued, “ is it? ” Jimmy agreed that it was. 

“ Can always tell ’em. Well, you’ve got to begin 
some time, I suppose.” 

Jimmy turned to the elevator and a moment later 
was stepping off into a reception room which, in his 
mental confusion, seemed filled with girls whose chat- 
ter mingled strangely with the click of typewriters. 

One of these girls got up from her desk and came 
toward him. 

Jimmy couldn’t have told you a thing about her 
five minutes later except that she had smiled and had 
ushered him to a seat and had told him to wait until 
she found the manager. But there was something 
about her that had left a decidedly pleasant impres- 


6 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

sion, and that had put him more at ease than he had 
been since his talk with the lad below. 

In a quarter of an hour, though it seemed much 
longer than that to Jimmy, Mr. Owens appeared. 
He sat down at Jimmy’s side and leaned toward 
him confidentially. 

“ Want a job, boy? What can you do? What 
kind of a job do you want? How old are you? 
Where have you worked before? How much did 
you get? Why did you leave? ” 

Jimmy gulped and decided that the damaging 
truth might as well be known at once. ‘‘ I’ve — 
I’ve never worked before; I’m just beginning.” 

“ Oh, ho ! ” Mr. Owens looked more interested 
and his eyes rapidly ran over the trim figure. 
“Never worked, eh? That’s good! And what 
makes you think you’d like to take up the publishing 
business? How did you happen to come in here? 
What do you think you can do for us? ” 

“ I think I could wash your windows and dust off 
the books displayed in ’em.” 

“ What? ” Mr. Owens snapped. 

Jimmy continued bravely: “I don’t think your 
store window looks very nice. I’m sure I could 


Jimmy Finds His Job 7 

clean it up a lot and keep it clean and do other things 
besides.” 

“ Well, I never ! ” Mr. Owens ejaculated. “ You 
don’t like our windows and think you could improve 
them. Humph ! You’ll do, boy, you’ll do*” 

“ You mean you’ll take me? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“When do I begin?” 

“ At once.” 

“ All — all right.” Jimmy rose somewhat uncer- 
tainly. “ Shall I start in on the windows? ” 

“ No, we’ll get the cleaners after that.” Mr. 
Owens made a mental note to speak to the store 
manager about his careless window dressing. 

“ Please, one more thing,” with evident embar- 
rassment; “ how much do I get? ” 

“ How much do you think you’re worth? ” 
jimmy’s buoyancy was coming back. “ I think 
I’m worth about twenty dollars a week, but if I get 
half of it I might be able to get along.” 

“ Ten dollars it is, then.” 

“ All right,” Jimmy assented. “ And — what do 
you call my job? ” 

“ Call it? Why, office boy, I guess.” 


CHAPTER II 


THE FIRST DAY 

J AMES QUIGG, President of the Berrington 
Company, or maybe the Quigg Publishing Com- 
pany — that’s what it was going to be some day. 
Jimmy had just resolved it. It was Jimmy Quigg, 
office boy, now, but you had to begin as an office 
boy to be a good president. Everybody knows that. 
It wouldn’t be long — ten years perhaps at the most 
— before he would be sitting in a big room before a 
shiny mahogany desk pushing buttons and ordering 
around the little creatures who answered his sum- 
mons — his summons. Jimmy’s mind was made up 
on that. 

This pleasant reverie was rudely interrupted by 
the buzz of the bell. He hurried to the indicator. 
Number three was ringing. Consulting a crumpled 
slip of paper he learned that number three was Mr. 
Grayson of the manufacturing department, but who 
and where was Mr. Grayson? He hadn’t the slight- 
8 


The First Day 


9 


est idea, and there wasn’t anybody around to ask; 
the other two boys had gone out to lunch. He 
didn’t think that they should have left him alone on 
his very first day. The bell buzzed again, long and 
insistently. 

Well, he would make a blind stab at it. Head- 
long he flung himself at the first door, opened it, 
and stepped in. Instantly he realized his mistake. 
At the desk before him was the august individual 
who had been pointed out to him as the president. 
He tried to retreat, but a voice stopped him: 

“Well, boy?” 

“ Excuse me, sir, I got in the wrong office; I was 
looking for Mr. Grayson.” 

The much-to-be-feared man nodded his head. 
“ Third door down to the left,” he said and went 
back to his writing. 

With that Jimmy escaped. He found Grayson 
irritable. “What’s the matter? Didn’t you hear 
that bell? Been ringing it for ten minutes.” 

“ Sorry, but — I had to find out where you were.” 

“ Um — well you know now, don’t forget next 
time. Here’s a package of proofs for Kendall in 
the editorial department. Know where that is? 


lo Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Floor below, right under this office. Step lively.” 

When Jimmy got back from Mr. Kendall’s of- 
fice, number one was ringing and then number five 
and then three again. He was indeed having a 
busy day. He didn’t know, until the next morning, 
that two boys were always supposed to be in that 
room to attend to the bells and to take care of the 
needs of visitors and that it was only because Miss 
Harris was absent, that Ben Smith and Fred 
Garson were able to steal away to luncheon at the 
same time, leaving everything to a new boy. Miss 
Harris, it developed, was the elegant lady who 
ruled in the outer office, keeping the boys in order 
and extending courtesy to the company’s guests. 

Jimmy had just got back from call number six 
when Ben and Fred came in. They looked at him 
from the superior height of old employees, and 
Fred inquired soflicitously, “ Everything gone all 
right?” 

“ Yep, been awful busy.” 

Jimmy did not catch the amused smile that passed 
between Ben and Fred as he said this. “ All the 
numbers seemed to want something and they all 
wanted it at once,” he added. 


II 


The First Day 

“ Let ’em ring. Take your time answering ’em. 
You should be bothered! Can’t do any more than 
keep moving. Well, you can go out to lunch now.” 
Fred dismissed him royally. 

“ Isn’t there any place here where I can eat my 
lunch?” 

“Eat your lunch here! You don’t mean to 
say you brought your own food! Never do that! 
You can get good grub over at Don Carlo’s Cafe; 
all you want for a quarter.” 

“ But why can’t I bring my own? ” 

“ You can if you want to, only none of us do it. 
Go down to the third floor, to the back, and you’ll 
find a room with some boxes in it. You can eat 
down there, I suppose. Wait, I’ll go down with 
you. You watch the bells up here, Ben.” 

“ Well, don’t be long,” Ben objected. “ I can’t 
be tending ’em alone.” 

Fred led Jimmy downstairs and through a dark 
passage that wound around between stacks of books 
to a small room, in which there were several big 
cases and which was light and pleasant. 

“ This is all right,” Jimmy said. “ They won’t 
find any fault if I eat in here, will they? ” 


12 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Naw, they never come here much, anyhow. 
It’s a good place to sneak down to if you ever want 
to get away for a little rest. I come down here,” 
and he looked about surreptitiously, “ for a cigarette 
once in a while. Do you smoke? ” 

Jimmy had deposited himself on a box and was 
untying a somewhat mussy-looking brown package. 
“ No,” he answered, biting into a substantial sand- 
wich. 

Fred showed no inclination to depart. “Well, 
I don’t smoke myself so awful much, but you know 
how it is. How old are you? ” 

“ Be fifteen in two months. How old are you? ” 
Jimmy returned. 

“ Sixteen my next birthday.” 

“ Thought you was older than that.” 

“ Yes,” proudly, “ I think I do look pretty near 
twenty. It’s the way I dress, and then I’ve been 
working and dealing with men so long, don’t you 
know.” 

“ Yes,” Jimmy agreed. And then for want 
of anything better he asked, “ Do you like it 
here?” 

“ Sure; it’s all right. If you know how to man- 


The First Day 13 

age you don’t have to do awful much. Watch me, 
kid, and you’ll get a few ideas.” 

“ But I should think you’d just about as soon be 
^usy as to hang around with nothing to do.” 

“It ain’t that,” Fred interrupted. “You don’t 
want to let ’em put anything over on you. That’s 
the thing to watch out for. We got a club over 
near where I live of fellows that work, and we dis- 
cuss all these things.” 

“A club?” 

“ Yes, Office Boys’ League, we call it. I’ll have 
to take you round some time.” 

“ Thanks; I’d like to go.” 

“ Sure it’s only by mixing with the bunch that you 
get to understand what’s what. Well, I must be 
going upstairs. Most like old Benny is having a fit. 
You’ve got forty minutes of your noon hour left 
yet and you want to take it all. Don’t ever come 
back to work before your time’s up. Don’t do you 
any good and ’tain’t good for us. See? ” 

Fred left Jimmy with a new train of thought — 
that it wasn’t nearly so simple being an office boy as 
it seemed on the surface. There were, evidently, 
all sorts of problems to be encountered and a definite 
code to be lived up to. 


CHAPTER III 


THE BIG IDEA 


HOUGH it was “ Jimmy Quigg, office boy ” 



JL who left the Berrington Publishing Company 
shortly after five o’clock that night, it was “ Jimmy 
Quigg, business man ” who arrived home half an 
hour or so later. He was quite out of breath when 
he burst through the hall door after his climb up 
the three flights of stairs, and it was difficult for 
him to look dignified — though he made a brave 


effort. 


His mother was in the kitchen standing over a 
steaming dish. She turned expectantly. 

“Well, son, how did it go? Have you got a 
job? I suppose you have or you would have been 
home before this.” 

Jimmy tried to answer with proper restraint, but 
he was too eager to tell the news. “ Yes, I’m with 
the Berrington Publishing Company and I get ten 


^^The Big Idea^^ 15 

dollars a week. I answer the bells and do errands 
and paste up bills in big books, and it’s going to be 
lots of fun. If I stick to the work and try hard, 
Mr. Owens, — he’s the man who hires you — says 
he’ll put me down in the advertising department 
where they have printing presses and I can set the 
type and ” 

“ Not so fast, boy, one thing at a time. But 
first you help me get supper on the table. We can 
talk as we eat. You must be hungry.” 

Jimmy turned to the shelves which lined one side 
of the kitchen, and taking down the plates and 
saucers placed them on the table while his mother 
dished up the contents of the kettle. 

“ And now,” Mrs. Quigg began, when they were 
seated, “ tell me all about it,” — and Jimmy, missing 
no detail, recounted his day’s experiences. 

After supper, when the dishes had been done and 
while Mrs. Quigg was “ taking a hand at a bit of 
ironing,” they still talked of the great adventure on 
which Jimmy had set out — business. 

“ Some day, mother. I’ll be a salesman or a book- 
keeper or something and make a lot of money and 
then we can live in a nice house and have servants 


1 6 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

and everything, but ten dollars isn’t so awful bad to 
begin on, do you think? ” 

“ It’s fine, boy,” Mrs. Quigg said proudly, “ and 
I don’t think we need worry about a new home. 
We’re pretty comfortable here.” 

“ Sure, I didn’t mean that,” Jimmy was quick to 
protest. He looked around the little room with its 
simple furnishings. “ Suits me, but I thought maybe 
you’d like something fancier.” 

“ i tell you what,” Mrs. Quigg said, beginning to 
indulge in daydreams of her own, “ I’d rather have 
something to ride in on a Sunday than a fancier 
house. I always thought it was awful nice when 
people could go a-riding on Sunday afternoons out 
in the parks and in the country. When I was a 
girl and lived on a farm that’s what we used to 
do — go out with the horse and buggy.” 

Jimmy was silent for a moment. “ If it’s riding 
you want to go, we’ll fix it,” he said at length, and 
almost as he said it he had “ the big idea.” It came 
upon him with such force that he almost exclaimed 
aloud, but he shut his lips tight and thought and at 
the end of his thinking came resolution and action. 
“ Think I’ll run down and get the rolls for break- 


^^The Big Idea^’ 17 

fast. Anything else you want me to do before I 
come back? ” 

“ No, I guess not,” replied Mrs. Quigg, surprised 
at this unusual solicitude. She usually had to ask 
him several times to get the rolls. 

It took Jimmy only about five minutes to go to 
the baker’s, but it was nearly an hour before he 
returned, his face aglow with excitement. 

The days wore on. Jimmy walked to work each 
morning fresh and eager and returned each night a 
bit tired, but happy and fairly bubbling over with 
accounts of his own doings and those of his asso- 
ciates. He did not say very much about Fred Gar- 
son, and yet Fred was the one with whom he had 
the most to do and about whom he was, perhaps, 
thinking the most. Sometimes he wondered if Fred 
were taking advantage of him, as, for example, 
when he left him to answer all the bells and do all 
the errands while he stamped invoices, stoutly 
maintaining, in the face of Jimmy’s protest, that the 
invoices were the most important and that he knew 
best how to take care of them. Jmmy could not 
deny this, and yet he knew, too, that Fred did not 


1 8 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

choose the invoices because of any interest in his 
employer’s welfare! But again Fred’s apparent 
friendliness would quite disarm him of his sus- 
picions. 

He was going through one of these periods of 
doubt when Fred came up to him — it was Thurs- 
day afternoon — and clapped him on the back as 
he stood at his table arranging bills in alphabetical 
order. 

“ Say, kid, don’t you want to come over to the 
club Sunday afternoon? We’ve got some sort of 
a shindig on. I’d like to have you meet the bunch.” 

Jimmy looked up, his suspicions vanishing into 
thin air. 

“ Sorry; I’d like to, but I’ve got something else 
doing.” 

“ Aw, shake it. You can come if you want to,” 
Fred urged. 

“ No,” . . . Jimmy hesitated, . . . “ you see,” 
... he hesitated again. For some reason or other 
he questioned the wisdom of telling Fred of his 
plans. But then, why shouldn’t he? “You see,” 
he repeated, “ I’m taking my mother riding.” 

“What’s the matter, is she sick?” 


'^The Big Idea^^ 


19 


Now that he had begun, Jimmy hurried on with 
his explanation. “ No, but she’s always wanted to 
go riding Sundays in the park and I found a man 
with a horse and carriage who’d take us all the 
afternoon for three dollars and I hired him.” 

“ That’s a funny idea. Nobody much rides in 
carriages. Why didn’t you get an auto?” 

“ Costs too much. Don’t you want to go out 
with us Sunday? There’ll be room enough for 
three. There’s only my mother and me.” 

“ I don’t want to. Thanks though.” There 
was a touch of scorn In Fred’s refusal. “ I don’t 
care nothing about riding in parks; that’s for ladies ” 
— and Fred walked away. 

Though Jimmy would probably not have admitted 
It, Fred’s refusal of his invitation took away some 
of the pleasure that he had experienced in making 
his Sunday plans. He had thought that he was go- 
ing to give his mother a real treat. Now he began 
to wonder if, after all. It had been a foolish idea. 
He supposed that he could tell the little old cabman 
who kept his horse and ancient vehicle in the livery 
stable not far from his home that he didn’t want 
him, but he had definitely hired him and 


20 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Well, he guessed he’d go through with it now that 
he had started. 

“ I think it’s a perfectly lovely thing, your going 
riding that way,” a voice near him said, and turning, 
Jimmy looked into the face of the girl who had 
smiled so pleasantly at him that first day. “ I heard 
you and Fred talking.” 

“ Oh, do you think she’ll like it, Helen? ” Jimmy 
asked eagerly. 

“ I am sure she will; I would.” 

“Say, you wouldn’t — you wouldn’t,” Jimmy 
grew very red, “ you wouldn’t want to go with us, 
would you? ” 

“ With you and your mother, Sunday? Why I’d 
love to, but of course I didn’t mean that when I 
said I’d like it.” 

“ I know you didn’t, but there’s that extra seat 
and, if you want to, why come along.” 

“ I’d be real pleased,” Helen said. 

Sunday dawned clear and brilliant, just such a 
morning as Jimmy would have selected had he had 
the power of selection. Still, he kept his secret. 
His mother went the usual round of her household 


^^The Big Idea^^ 


21 


tasks unconscious of the great event that was so near 
at hand. About eleven o’clock Jimmy suggested 
that they have their dinner a little early — “ So that 
we can be through by half past twelve. I’ve got 
something I want to do this afternoon.” 

Mrs. Quigg said nothing, but wondered what 
had got into the boy. He had acted not at all like 
himself for the past day or so and one thing es- 
pecially worried her. When he had given her the 
money from his first week’s work he had said, 
“ Here’s only seven dollars this week, mother. I 
had an obligation I had to meet. I’ll tell you about 
it some time.” 

What obligation could he have had that she knew 
nothing of? And yet there was something in his 
reserved manner that warned her not to ask too 
many questions. 

But she had dinner early as he had suggested; they 
were all through and the dishes washed and put 
away before one o’clock. Shortly after that hour 
there was a pounding on the door. Jimmy hurried 
to open it. His cabman was there. Jimmy quickly 
stepped out and shut the door behind him. 

“ Wait down on the street, we’ll be ready in a 


22 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

minute/’ he whispered. Then he returned to his 
mother. 

“ Now, mother,” he said, his eyes shining excit- 
edly, “ we’re going for a Sunday ride. Get your 
hat.” 

“ Ridel What do you mean? ” 

“ Never mind, just get your hat and hurry, be- 
cause we are losing what’s being paid for.” 

Mrs. Quigg was very much perplexed, but she 
obeyed and soon she was being ushered down the 
stairs and out of the building. 

At the curb, surrounded by a crowd of curious 
children, was a remarkable equipage, belonging to 
another time — an open carriage of the victoria 
type drawn by a horse almost as ancient as the vehi- 
cle itself. But neither Jimmy nor Mrs. Quigg no- 
ticed the signs of age in wagon or animal. 

“ Jimmy! ” Mrs. Quigg exclaimed. “ What does 
this mean? ” 

“ It means we’re going to spend the afternoon in 
the park.” 

Mrs. Quigg’s eyes filled. “ But you shouldn’t,” 
she expostulated. She knew now where the three 
dollars had gone. 


'^The Big Idea^^ 


23 


“Why, don’t you like it?” 

“ Like it ! Why, of course, but ” 

“ Well, then, come on.” And with that he led 
her down the steps to the curb. With great polite- 
ness he assisted her to a seat, then got in himself and 
sat down opposite her. 

“ Helen’s going to sit with you,” he said. 

“Helen?” 

“ Yes, she’s one of the office girls. We’re to stop 
for her at Nineteenth Street. She said she’d be 
waiting there. Now, then, up Fifth Avenue, please, 
to Central Park,” he instructed the driver. “ Isn’t 
this a nice surprise? ” he asked, settling back in the 
worn, but still comfortable, cushions. 

“ Wonderful,” his mother answered. 

With that they were off, followed by the admiring 
and envious glances of many pairs of eyes. 


CHAPTER IV 


RED INK 

S UCH a ride as it was! The queer-looking ve- 
hicle made its way slowly up the crowded thor- 
oughfare, winding cautiously in and out among fine 
automobiles, but giving quite as much pleasure to 
the three people it carried as though it were the 
latest model of some manufacturer of twin sixes. 
Eager eyes took in the view, first of tall buildings 
and later of the green grass and trees and bushes 
in the park. It seemed to Jimmy, who occasionally 
took shy glances at his mother, that she was already 
looking more rested than she had for weeks and 
that the longer they rode the younger she grew. 

The next morning Helen Platt characterized the 
occasion to the two or three girls of the Herring- 
ton forces with whom she chummed as “ a swell 
affair. It was lots more fun than riding in a street 
car or an automobile, or — or anything, except an 
airplane, I guess,” she concluded. 


24 


Red Ink 


25 

“ You ought to have taken some lunch,” one of 
the girls suggested. 

“ We did. Jimmy had that all fixed up with me. 
That was what I contributed, and when we came to 
a nice spot in the park we stopped and got out and 
ate it.” 

“Humph!” snorted Fred, who had joined the 
group. “ Riding in carriages and eating in parks 1 
Who wants to do that?” 

“ Just because you don’t, is no sign nobody doesn’t 
want to,” Helen retorted. “ I’ll bet we had a 
nicer time than you did.” 

“ I wasn’t spending my time in kid’s play any- 
how.” Fred turned away in disdain. 

But, though Jimmy had no doubt as to the success 
of his Sunday’s ride so far, at least, as his mother 
and Helen were concerned, he did feel a little 
troubled that Fred so disapproved of it. Did Fred, 
after all, represent mature masculine judgment? 
Was it a thing to be scorned to go riding in the 
park? The doubt was the one fly in the amber of 
his enjoyment. 

He followed Fred. 

“ Your party went off all right, did it? ” he asked. 


26 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Sure, soq;ie doings. But I don’t suppose you’d 
be interested. It’s so different from what you do.” 

‘‘ That’s no reason for thinking I wouldn’t like 
it. I like all kinds of things.” 

“ Do you? I thought maybe you only liked sort 
of sissy things. As far as anything I’ve seen, that’d 
be about your style.” 

Jimmy flushed. “ I don’t call it sissy to go out 
with your mother.” 

“ No, ’tisn’t, unless that’s all you do. If a fel- 
low’s going to be a man he’s got to go out with 
fellows.” 

“ Sure, ’n’ I do.” 

“ Well, then, we’ll call it square, ’til the next 
time, but when I ask you again to go to my club 
you’d better go, ’cause if you don’t you won’t get 
another invite.” 

“ I’ll go all right, all right.” 

Throughout the day and for several days this con- 
versation rankled in Jimmy’s mind. Fred main- 
tained his reserved attitude as though Jimmy were 
still on trial, and Jimmy longed for an opportunity 
to prove his worth I That opportunity came before 
the week was out. 


Red Ink 


27 


Jimmy and Fred and Ben Smith were sitting, at 
the time, at the little table in the outer hall where 
the office boys sat when there was nothing for them 
to do and, having no occupation, their minds were 
intent on stirring up excitement. 

“ Tell you what would be an awful fine joke,” 
Fred said in whispers, “ but I wouldn’t dare do it. 
You know those glass soap bowls they’ve got in the 
wash room, those that hold liquid soap and you 
press down on the spout and they shoot some of the 
soap out on your hands?” 

The boys nodded. 

“ Well,” Fred went on, “ suppose you was to 
take out the plug and put in with the soap just a 
little red ink ” Fred paused to watch the ef- 

fect of his words. 

The three boys looked at each other and laughed. 

“ Wouldn’t you just die to see old Mr. Grayson 
go in to wash up his little paddies, oh, so ^lean, and 
have him get a nice bath of red ink when he ex- 
pected something else? ” 

“ Gee, I’d love it! But I’d be afraid to do it,” 
Ben admitted. 

Jimmy hesitated. “ Pugh I Doing it ain’t 


28 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

nothing. I’d just as soon do it,” he said with a 
bravado he far from felt, “ but — but ” 

“ But what? ” snapped Fred. 

And that added the final touch of incentive, that 
challenging tone in Fred’s voice. 

“ But — but when could you do it? Somebody’d 
see you,” Jimmy finished weakly. 

“Oh, that’d be easy enough; it would only take 
a second. You could watch out and see when the 
coast was clear.” 

“ Black ink’d be better,” Ben suggested. 

“No!” Fred objected. “Red ink wouldn’t 
show so much in the dish. Looks kind of like the 
soap stuff they’ve got in there now. Black ink’d 
mess you up more, but red’d be safer.” 

“ I’ll do it,” Jimmy announced. 

“Good! Didn’t think you had the spunk!” 
Fred’s words were as music to Jimmy’s ears. 

About three o’clock that afternoon, when there 
was a lull in the demands on the office boys, Jimmy’s 
chance came. With a bottle of red ink under his 
coat he slipped away and succeeded beautifully in his 
purpose and without detection. 

“ I put in an awful lot,” he said upon his return. 


Red Ink 


29 


“ Made the soap look a little red, but I guess they 
won’t notice it. Maybe they’ll think it’s just a 
new kind of soap.” 

“Did you really put it in?” Even now Fred 
was suspicious. “ Think I’ll go and see,” which he 
did, returning a few moments later and confirming 
Jimmy’s report. “ You sure did a good job ! Gee, 
I wish I could be on hand when the first splash 
comes.” 

“ I hope Grayson gets it,” Ben said. He seemed 
to have some grudge against the head of the man- 
ufacturing department. 

“I — I wonder what they’ll do? ” Jimmy mused. 
His mind conjured up all sorts of dreadful penalties. 

“ Oh, most likely they’ll have a grand powwow 
and make it hot for somebody. But remember,” 
Fred cautioned, “ none of us here know anything 
about it.” 

“ Nobody knows,” Ben agreed. 

Strange as it may seem, it was Mr. Grayson who 
first tested the cleansing powers of the liquid-soap 
dish, and his surprise and astonishment when, after 
pushing down the plunger several times, he looked 
at his hand to find it splotched with brilliant red. 


30 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

knew no bounds. He glared at the offending con- 
tainer, rinsed his hand, and stamped angrily out of 
the room and to the manager’s office. 

“Look at that!” He stretched forth his arm, 
exhibiting a red-stained palm. 

“Well?” and Mr. Owens waited. 

“Well! I should say well! You know what 
some rapscallion has done? Filled the soap con- 
tainers in the lavatory with red ink.” Mr. Gray- 
son waited for the full effect of his words. 

Mr. Owens laughed. 

“Laugh, do you? ’Tisn’t my idea of a joke. 
What’s happened to your discipline?” 

With difficulty Mr. Owens controjled himself. 
“ You’re quite right, Mr. Grayson. Something 
must be done about it, of course, but — but just 
between you and me, it is funny; don’t you think 
so?” 

“ No, I don’t,” Mr. Grayson replied emphatically 
and went back to his own desk. 

Mr. Owens turned to his stenographer. “ Get 
all the office boys in here right away.” 

In five minutes they were there, six of them. 
They stood embarrassed, awkward, awaiting judg- 


Red Ink 


31 

merit, some of them at least totally ignorant as to 
the reason for the summons. 

“ Boys,” Mr. Owens began seriously, “ a joke’s 
a joke, but business is business and you’ve got to 
cut out your fooling. I’ve been watching you for 
some days and unless things get better at once I’ll 
give the whole crew of you your walking papers. 
Now, then, what I want to know is, who put red 
ink in the soap dish in the men’s wash room on this 
floor?” 

There was unbroken silence. 

“Come, come, who did it?” 

Again no response. 

“ Very well, then. I’ll get at you one by one.” 

Three of the boys were able to prove an alibi at 
once and were dismissed, leaving Ben, Fred, and 
Jimmy. 

“ Garson, how about you? Do you know any- 
thing about it? ” Mr. Owens snapped. 

“ No, sir, not a thing,” came the unhesitating 
reply. 

Mr. Owens turned to Jimmy, who was next in line. 

Before he asked the question, Jimmy spoke. 
“Aw, what’s the use? — I did it,” he said sullenly. 


32 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“You! ” Mr. Owens exclaimed. “ Seems to me 
you’re beginning pretty early in your career here, 
young man. Only been with us about two weeks. 
All right, you two boys can go. I’ll have it out with 
this lad.” Fred and Ben made a hurried exit. 

“ I’m just a trifle disappointed in you,” Mr. 
Owens said when the two were alone. “I — I 
thought you were above this sort of thing.” He 
waited for Jimmy to make a reply, but Jimmy was 
silent. 

“Well, haven’t you anything to say about it?” 

“ Nothing to say, is there, except that I did it? ” 

“ No, I suppose not,” Mr. Owens agreed. “ I’m 
glad you had the decency to say that. I don’t sup- 
pose you care about being given another chance. 
Most of you fellows would just as soon be told to 
get out as not.” 

“ Oh, no 1 ” Jimmy interrupted. 

“What?” 

“I — I wish you didn’t have to fire me.” 

“ Oh, you do 1 And I suppose if I don’t you 
won’t ever do it again or anything else. You’ll be 
a model little boy.” 

“ I don’t know about that, but I’ll try.” 



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Red Ink 


33 


“ Well, I’ll let you try and, believe me, young 
man, it will be worth your while. I don’t mind tell- 
ing you that this morning I had decided to put you 
into the cashier’s office where you’d have a pretty 
good chance to work up, but you have killed all that 
now. I’ll give Garson the job and watch you a 
little longer to see what sort of stuff you’re made 
of.” 


CHAPTER V 


THE OFFICE BOYS’ LEAGUE 

I NWARDLY Jimmy rebelled at what he felt was 
the injustice of it all. “ Garson gets promoted 
and I get the blame,” he thought, “ and it was Gar- 
son that started the thing. Oh, well, what differ- 
ence does it make? It’ll all blow over and be 
forgotten.” 

He was careful not to let Fred see that he har- 
bored any ill feeling. 

“ What’d he say? ” Garson asked at the first op- 
portunity. “ He didn’t fire you, did he?” 

“ Oh, no, just talked a little wild and ” 

“ And you promised to be good,” Garson finished 
the sentence. 

“ That’s about it.” 

For the next few weeks it almo«/t seemed as 
though that had been not only Jimmy’s promise, 
but his firm resolve. He answered the bells with 
such promptness that the various department heads 
34 


The Office Boys' League 35 

were at a loss to understand this new type of serv- 
ice. He numbered invoices with a speed hitherto 
quite unknown in this difficult art. He looked up 
back orders and dug out hidden correspondence from 
the files which nobody else had been able to find. 
In fact he made himself a useful and popular young 
man. 

During his noon hour Jimmy cultivated Fred Gar- 
son. Jimmy continued to bring his lunch, eating it 
in the stock room as he had on that first day, and 
here, for the latter part of the hour, usually came 
Fred. 

“ Can you come over to the club next Saturday 
night? ” Fred asked on one of these occasions. 
“ Now don’t say you got to stay home with your 
mother or give any other punk reason.” 

“Nope, I can come. What time?” 

“ About eight. We’re going to have a business 
meeting first, but that’ll be short and then there’s 
eats. I’m going right up from here. Probably I’ll 
get a sandwich or something first, but on club nights 
I don’t go home, takes too long.” 

“ Mother wouldn’t like it if I didn’t come home 
first,” Jimmy ventured. 


36 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“Oh, well, you’ll have time enough; you live 
nearer. Alex he don’t care whether I ever come 
home or not.” 

“Alex?” 

“ He’s the man I live with.” 

“ Don’t you live at home with your mother and 
father?” 

“ Haven’t got any. Alex’s a Russian, and when 
my father died he took me. No great credit to 
him; he’s always made me work hard enough. I 
haven’t got any relations, I guess, over here.” 

“ You a Russian? ” 

“ My father was; Garson wasn’t his real name. 
I made Garson up out of some of the letters that 
were in his name. I couldn’t be bothered with all 
the fixings it had originally. You’d oughter hear 
Alex’s name. I don’t think he knows how to spell 
it himself. He’s some shrewd guy, though.” 

“What do you mean — in business?” 

- “ No, he don’t have much business, any regular 
business, that is. Says he knows too much for that. 
He makes quite a lot talking.” 

“ Oh ! ” Jimmy said, not comprehending the im- 
port of Fred’s words. 


37 


The Office Boys^ League 

“ He’s a believer in freedom and liberty and all 
that. He tries to make people get their rights. 
Says the poor man’s time’s coming. That’s his pet 
spiel. Just wait ’til once they get started, they’ll 
rip things to pieces for fair, he says.” 

“ Sounds kind of like a — a socialist or something 
like that,” Jimmy ventured. 

“ He ain’t a socialist. Socialists don’t go far 
enough for Alex. He’s a regular fellow. Some- 
times I wonder if he ain’t right.” 

Jimmy was too intent on the business of eating 
homemade apple pie with his fingers to give much 
thought to this weighty problem. “ Maybe,” was 
all he volunteered. Then quickly changing the sub- 
ject, he asked, “ how do you like your new job? ” 

This was not the first time that he had asked 
that question in the several weeks that Fred had 
been working in the cashier’s office. A careful ob- 
server might have seen in Jimmy’s oft-repeated in- 
quiries something more than interest in Fred — a 
tinge of regret, perhaps, that the job had not been 
his, and curiosity to know how the lucky candidate 
was making out. 

“ I like it,” Fred answered. “ It’s fun being 


38 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

in where all the money is. I count it, too, some- 
times; the cash orders, you know, and last Saturday 
the cashier let me help him make up the pay roll. 
I know how much most everybody gets ” — impor- 
tantly. “ Well, I got to go now. My time’s up. 
Don’t forget about Saturday.” 

As if Jimmy could forget! Fred reminded him 
of the engagement every time he saw him for the 
balance of the week, and Jimmy really needed no re- 
minder. He was quite curious to visit this club 
of which Fred had spoken so often and in such glow- 
ing terms. It was, if Fred’s judgment was to be 
taken, the “ open sesame ” to business success. 

It did not look like any such wonder-working 
agency, Jimmy thought that Saturday night as he 
stopped before the building in which it was housed 
— an unattractive, run-down structure in a street 
of bygones within hailing distance of Greenwich 
Village. The upper floors were used for storage 
purposes. Down three or four stone steps, framed 
with a rickety railing, was the entrance to the base- 
ment, over the doorway of which was lettered in 
yellow paint. Office Boys’ League. At the right 
of the doorway was a window through the dirty 


39 


The Office Boys* League 

panes of which Jimmy could see a room full of boys, 
some little, some big. He hated to go in, but Fred 
was expecting him. Should he knock, or should he 
turn the knob? He considered both and then de- 
cided to enter without any preliminaries. 

Fred was near the door and saw him at once. 
The meeting was still in progress and Fred motioned 
Jimmy to a seat beside him. 

There were in the room perhaps two dozen boys 
of varying ages from fifteen to twenty. They were 
listening to one of the older members, a lanky in- 
dividual, who was urging upon them the importance 
of securing better pay for their work. 

“ We’re gittin’ six ’n’ eight ’n’ maybe ten dollars,” 
he shouted nasally, “ ’n’ look what the girls is gittin’ 
for runnin’ typewriters. Ain’t we as good in any 
business as the girls? I’ll say we are! ” 

A roar of approval interrupted him, but he went 
on, undisturbed: 

“The boss, he thinks of something to do. We 
do it ’n’ he gits the money. Shouldn’t we have a 
part of what’s cornin’ in? I’ll say we should! 
What’d business offices be without us? How long’d 
they run if it wasn’t for us? They’d be deader ’n a 


40 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

doornail in ’bout a week. I’ll say they would! 
Who’s ready to say he won’t work ’nless he gits 
decent pay? I’ll say I am! ” 

He paused dramatically, but there was silence. 
Perhaps his hearers could appreciate his oratory, 
but were loath to act. 

“ Ain’t there nobody ready to fight for their 
rights? ” 

Again silence. 

“ Well, you’re just a bunch of boobs, then,” he 
concluded and sat down in disgust. 

The president rose. “ We’re ready to agree 
something ought to be done,” he began, “ but we 
don’t know what to do. We can’t be in too much 
of a hurry. Office boys oughta have more pay, but 
what’s the way to go about it? What’s the big 
idea? That’s the question.” 

“ Strike ! ” the first speaker interrupted. 
“ Strike, if you can’t git it; that’s the way, that’s 
what they’re all doin’, an’ they’re gittin’ it.” 

“ That would be all right if we all worked in one 
place,” the president went on, “ but here we are 
twenty fellows working at fifteen or eighteen places. 
What good’d a strike do? ” 


41 


The Office Boys' Leagve 

“ Each fellow,” answered the boy agitator, 
“ what’s a member of this league should start up 
and organize the fellows in his company. That’s 
easy.” 

“ I think we got to go slow,” the president again 
cautioned. “ I’d suggest we appoint a committee to 
look into it and report at the next meeting.” 

“ This club’s always appointing committees. 
That’s all it ever amounts to,” came a protest. 

Nevertheless that was what was done and the 
meeting soon adjourned. 

Jimmy, who was thoroughly bewildered by the 
proceedings, was taken by Fred and introduced to a 
number of his “ pals.” 

“ This is Jimmy Quigg,” he would say, “ my side 
partner at Berrington’s,” and Jimmy would awk- 
wardly acknowledge the introduction. 

He did not, for some reason, feel drawn to the 
boys. There was something about Fred — perhaps 
it was his good looks, perhaps it was his easy assur- 
ance, perhaps it was his assumption of a superior 
business knowledge — that made him like him. 
But these boys were different. Some of them were 
sleepy-acting, he thought, and others — he was look- 


42 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

ing at the moment at a debonair young man smoking 
a cigarette as he played his hand of cards at a corner 
table — others he just didn’t like ! 

Jimmy had always been a home boy and there was 
something in this present atmosphere that had not 
awakened a responsive chord in him. He was not 
used to hearing the kind of talk that was being in- 
dulged in so freely or to having the kind of thoughts 
that many of these boys were having. For just one 
moment he was tempted to cut it all and go home 
— and then they began to pass around sandwiches 
and bottles of sarsaparilla and almost before they 
were through eating Fred was persuading him to try 
his hand at a game of billiards on the improvised 
billiard table at the back of the room, and things 
were easier and he was deciding that it wasn’t so 
bad, after all. 

When, shortly before midnight, the party broke 
up and Jimmy got out into the fresh air and was 
alone, he was again beset by doubts. He wondered 
if, after all, that was being a man, acting and think- 
ing in the manner of the boys of the Office Boys’ 
League. Somehow it wasn’t quite what he had ex- 
pected as the first step to manhood and he didn’t feel 
any more “ manly ” than he had before. 


CHAPTER VI 


PROMOTION 

M onday morning brought with it a summons 
for Jimmy to Mr. Owens’ office. 

“ He wants to see you right away,” Ben Smith 
said importantly. “ What you been doing — filling 
up any more soap dishes with ink? ” 

It was without fear that Jimmy this time walked 
into Mr. Owens’ presence. He knew that he had 
been toeing the mark absolutely. 

It developed that Mr. Owens knew it too. With- 
out any preliminaries he said: 

“ I’m going to put you down in the advertising 
department. There’s a good chance for you there if 
you’re made of the right sort of stuff.” 

“ Thank you, I — I’d rather be in the adver- 
tising department than anywhere else.” 

“ Very well,” Mr. Owens grunted. “ Get busy, 
then.” 


43 


44 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Jimmy found that, for the time being at least, 
he was to assist Mr. Owens’ son Bertrand, a young 
man just out of college and a likeable chap, who de- 
lighted quite as much as did Jimmy in smearing 
himself with printer’s ink and in tuning up the 
machinery. 

The Berrington Publishing Company had none of 
its books manufactured in the building in which its 
offices were located, but it had a few fonts of type 
and several small presses there, for the accommo- 
dation of rush jobs in the circular field. Jimmy’s 
special charge was somewhat prosaic — the storing 
of the circulars, neatly tied in packages and recorded, 
and the delivery of them, when called for by the 
different departments of the house and by the book 
dealers of the country. He was living, however, in 
the atmosphere in which these circulars were made, 
and he hoped, sooner or later, to assist in the set- 
ting of the type and in the actual printing. In fact, 
once during the first fortnight of his work with the 
department, when there was a call for many extra 
sets of proof of a forthcoming announcement, Ber- 
trand turned the hand press over to him and showed 
him how to take the impressions from the type. 


Promotion 


45 


That was a day which Jimmy long remembered. 

It was while he was engaged in this fascinating 
occupation that Fred Garson came in, ostensibly with 
a memorandum for Bertrand, but really, as Jimmy 
quite understood, knowing that Fred rarely conde- 
scended to deliver house memoranda now that 
he was in the cashier’s department, to get in a 
word with Jimmy. 

“ You’re a sweet-looking mess,” Fred said, keep- 
ing his distance as though he expected the smudge 
on Jimmy’s hands and face to jump over on to him 
if he got close enough. “ You’ve got a blotch in 
the middle of your forehead as big as your fist 
and another on your cheek, and look at your 
hands ! ” 

“ Gee! aren’t they lovely? ” Jimmy fairly oozed 
satisfaction, “ but look at these proofs, all nice and 
clean. See, first you put the sheet down on the 
frame like this, then you spread it out smooth and 
bring down this weight on it. Then you lift it up 
and take off your proof. Isn’t that nice?” 

“ Maybe. Don’t appeal to me. Got a min- 
ute?” 

“ Sure, what you want?” 


46 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ You know that night when you was over to the 
Office Boys’ League?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ You remember how they was talking about or- 
ganizing strikes? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Well, they’re doing it. One of the guys got all 
the boys in his place to go together to the boss and 
demand more money and they got it.” 

“They did?” 

“ Yep, and we had another meeting last night 
and we all agreed to see what we could do over in 
our own joints. I’m the organizer for Berrington’s 
and I’m trying to call a meeting of all the boys for 
this noon down in the stock room. Will you come? 
Nobody’s said he wouldn’t, so far.” 

“ I don’t mind coming. That doesn’t say I’ll 
strike. I’m satisfied now.” 

“ Don’t ever be satisfied I If you are you won’t 
get what’s cornin’ to you. Well, that’s all and I’ll 
see you, then, this noon at about half past twelve.” 

“ All right; so long.” 

Bertrand, who was bending over a case of type, 
had heard the conversation. His eyes twinkled as 


Promotion 


47 


he turned to Jimmy. “ What’s the idea, Jimmy, 
you boys going to get together and demand your 
rights? ” 

Jimmy was embarrassed. “ Why, you see, there’s 
a club that . . . Garson belongs to . . . that’s try- 
ing to look out for the office boys. I guess Fred’s 
hoping we’ll have a club like that here, or something. 
I don’t know much about it.” He felt the weak- 
ness of his reply himself. 

“An office boys’ club? That’s not a bad idea. 
Why don’t you get up one?” 

“ That’s what we’re talking about.” 

“ But I mean a club for good times, not one of 
these serious-minded affairs. Have a baseball team 
and a football team; I’ll coach you if you do. I 
played baseball on the Columbia College team and 
I know a little about other games.” 

“You’d coach us, would you?” 

“ Yes ! Think it over, kid.” 

Jimmy did think it over, and when he went to the 
meeting at twelve-thirty it was with a real idea. 
He didn’t get an opportunity to express it for some 
time. Fred held the floor. 

“We ought to have an hour for lunch and quit 


48 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

at five sharp and we ought to get twelve dollars a 
week to start and fifteen in three months. Those 
are the figures laid down by the Office Boys’ 
League,” Fred said. 

“ What’s the Office Boys’ League that it should be 
laying down figures for me?” piped up a boy at- 
tached to the sales department. 

“Will you guys keep still ’til I get through?” 
Garson glared at the lads sitting on the packing 
cases around him. “ The only way you’ll ever get 
anything in this world is to kick for it. The louder 
you yell, the more you’ll get. I’m out for what’s 
coming to me. Ain’t you? Or do you poor fish 
want to have the boss take his share and part of 
yours? If you ask for fifteen dollars in three 
months you’ll get fifteen! Now, then, do we go in 
on this thing with the Office Boys’ League, or do 
we just sit back and say ‘ please ’ and ‘ thank you ’ 
and take the leavings? ” 

Ben Smith replied first. Long familiarity did not 
make him the least bit afraid of Fred, despite his 
blustering oratory. 

“ It’s all right,” he drawled, “ to say we demand 
fifteen dollars and hours off and all that sort of 


Promotion 


49 


thing, but what’s going to happen if they don’t like 
our demanding it an’ give us the bounce? Is the 
Office Boys’ League going to keep us in spending 
money ’til we get another job? I’m for demanding, 
if it’s safe, but not otherwise.” 

“ Certainly not! ” Fred retorted with emphasis. 
“ The Office Boys’ League ain’t going to do any such 
thing. If you lose your job you’re not paid till you 
get another one, that’s all. But who’s afraid of los- 
ing his job in a case like this? It’s the starting of 
a fight for our rights and we’ll win in time, if we 
don’t right away. I ain’t afraid to go in and face 
the whole crew of bosses and stand up stiff. I’ll 
do the talking if you guys’ll back me up.” 

“ How back you up? ” came another inquiry. 

“ Why, by quitting if you don’t get what you ask 
for.” 

There was an awkward silence, and it was here 
that Jimmy sprang his suggestion. 

“ I don’t think much of this strike business,” he 
said. “ I think if I was the G. M. I’d fire the whole 
bunch. We aren’t so important they couldn’t get 
along without us, and I say, if anybody thinks he 
isn’t gettin’ enough money for the work he’s doing 


50 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

let him go and talk to Mr. Owens about it himself.” 

“ You make me sick,” Fred broke in disgustedly. 
“ Don’t you know that in order to get anything 
you’ve got to stand together? Great Scott! If 
you only knew what was being done by men combin- 
ing in the trades you’d see what a chance there was 
here. I know all about that side of it. I’ve got 
particulars.” 

“ I don’t care if you have,” Jimmy replied. “ I’m 
voting no. I like my job too much.” 

With the exception of Ben Smith, who was char- 
acteristically noncommittal, all the others sided with 
Jimmy, which gave him confidence to proceed with 
his plan. 

“ Now while we aren’t going to strike,” he said, 
“ I don’t see why we shouldn’t form a club.” 

“ What for, pink teas? ” Fred interrupted. 

Jimmy ignored him and went right on. “ We 
could hold meetings and get up a baseball team and 
go on hikes ” he paused. 

The idea was cordially received. 

“ Now you’re talking.” 

“ I’d like to.” 


“ You can count on me.” 


Promotion 


51 


‘‘ And then,” Jimmy went on, flattered at the 
reception accorded his suggestion, “ if there was any- 
thing we didn’t like we could speak to Mr. Owens 
about it.” 

“ That’s the idea.” 

“ Sure,” sneered Fred. “ Say ‘ please.’ ” 

“ What’s the answer? Shall we do it ? ” Jimmy 
seemed to have taken over from Fred the running 
of the meeting. 

An affirmative chorus answered his inquiry. 

“When’ll we start?” 

“ Right away,” several exclaimed. 

“ All right. Perhaps we could have a meeting 
some night at my house and fix things up.” 

“ Ought to elect officers,” Ben volunteered. 

“ We could do that then. It’s time we were get- 
ting back to work now,” Jimmy concluded. “ We’ll 
start this club business going right away.” 

They scattered. Fred and Jimmy were left alone. 

“ Don’t see why you had to knock the whole thing 
in the head,” Fred said sourly. 

“Oh, come now, forget it! You wouldn’t get 
sore just because I didn’t fall in with you.” 

Fred smiled sheepishly. “ No, not exactly sore, 


52 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

but still I wish you had. You won’t ever be able 
to do anything with this bunch; too much like babies. 
The Office Boys’ League is the crowd ! By the way, 
I had you up for membership last night and you 
were voted in. Congratulations.” 

“I — a member of the Office Boys’ League? 
Thanks — thanks a lot.” His tone did not convey 
unalloyed pleasure. He didn’t know whether he 
wanted to be a member of the Office Boys’ League 
or not. 


CHAPTER VII 

“ A BOY WITHOUT A COUNTRY ” 

F red GARSON might well have been termed 
‘‘ a boy without a country.” Born of Russian 
parentage he had come to America at the age of 
five in company with his father, who was fleeing 
Russia where he had become embroiled in political 
strife. Shortly after his arrival in America he had 
died, and Fred had become the charge of Alexeyitch 
Ognev briefly and popularly known as “ Alex.” 

Fred grew up in an atmosphere of discontent. 
His adult associates were men and women railing 
at the government and at existing social conditions. 
It was the most natural thing in the world for him, 
therefore, to think that he was being defrauded of 
his rights by those in power, some mysterious circle 
of masters who had control of things and who would 
keep control until they were ousted by the “ com- 
mon people.” He looked upon himself as one of 
S3 


54 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

an exploited class, whose ability and energy were 
used for the benefit of others. He failed utterly 
to see that entire freedom of action was his. He 
sensed none of the advantages that lay around him, 
many of which he did not know existed. He felt a 
certain rebellion at what he thought was the injustice 
of it all, and he was constantly maintaining, just as 
were his elders, that sooner or later he would get 
what was coming to him. He was in fact a replica, 
in little, of Alex and of half a dozen others — 
Alex’s associates. He was the logical product of 
his environment. 

With all this, there were still in Fred’s make-up 
qualities of undeniable charm. There was a fear- 
lessness about him that sometimes verged on defi- 
ance, but unless that characteristic was roused he 
seemed only like an eager, impetuous lad. He was 
generous, provided he could be so in his own way; 
but was obstinate if his desires were curbed. He 
was generally a good mixer and popular, but in order 
to be wholly in his element he had to be the leader. 

Fred was undeniably interested in Jimmy and 
Jimmy was interested in Fred. Though Fred pro- 
fessed to scorn Jimmy’s opinion, and though he 


A Boy Without a Country^^ 55 

would, in many instances, have thrown over alto- 
gether a boy who differed with him as often as 
Jimmy did, he did not wish to throw over Jimmy. 
He was drawn to him, he wanted to lead him his 
way, and every time that he failed to do so he was 
provoked at himself for having anything further to 
do with him, but almost before he realized it he 
would find himself back on some new tack. 

Jimmy, on the other hand, wanted Fred to like 
him, even though he couldn’t approve of all that 
Fred did and said. He had served to raise a big 
question in Jimmy’s mind: Were Fred’s ideas of 
honor the right ideas? Were his principles those 
which he would like to make his own? Would 
his mother be proud of him if he followed Fred’s 
lead? 

While he was debating these things he clung te- 
naciously to his old ideals, resolving not to throw 
over the old until he was sure of the new. 

The severest test of the friendship of the two 
boys came as a result of their differing attitudes to- 
ward their jobs. The first clash was precipitated at 
the organization meeting of the Herrington Boys’ 
Association — a name previously unanimously 


^6 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

agreed upon — which was held at Jimmy’s home a 
week or two after the stock-room conference. 

All the boys of the company came, even three or 
four who thought themselves above the office-boy 
classification. It was an informal meeting, run with- 
out any attempt at parliamentary procedure. 

Jimmy was suggested for president, but he at 
once declined. 

“ No, fellows, Fred ought to be president. You 
see he belongs to a club and knows how to run one. 
I’d be new at it.” 

Fred demurred, but was plainly pleased, and as 
there was no dissenting voice he was acclaimed the 
club’s head. Jimmy was named vice president, Ben 
Smith, treasurer, and Frank Lockwood, secretary. 

With the list of officers complete Fred began his 
“ inaugural ” speech. 

“ What I want to know is, what’s this club going 
to do? You got to get your back up in this world 
if you’re going to amount to anything, and I say let’s 
be a red hot proposition and make Berrington’s a fit 
place to work in.” 

“ Nothing doing. This is to be a social club.” 

Fred glared at the offending speaker, a little, tow- 


A Boy Without a Country*^ 57 

headed youngster from the educational department. 

“ Social,” he exclaimed. “ Socialist, maybe.” 

Jimmy saw trouble. “ I don’t see why it can’t 
be a little bit of both,” he volunteered, “ a club to 
have a good time and a club to help us along.” 

“ The two things don’t mix. Got to be one or 
the other,” Fred snapped back. 

Jimmy flared up. “ Let’s talk sense ! What’s 
the idea of all the time preaching striking and that 
sort of bunk? It won’t get you anywhere. If we 
had all the office boys in the city it would be dif- 
ferent. But for us to get cocky is all foolishness. 
We’d be out on the street looking for a job before 
we knew it and they’d have somebody else taking 
our places and wouldn’t miss us in ten minutes.” 

“Very well!” Fred plainly showed his disgust, 
“ If that’s the way you feel about it, why, there’s 
nothing more to say. But the Office Boys’ League 
aren’t going at it that way. They’re organized, as 
they ought to be. Already the fellows in one con- 
cern have taken the League’s advice and put in their 
demands and got ’em 1 ” 

“ Yes,” Jimmy interrupted, “ but what about that 
other company that bounced the whole crew?” 


58 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Never mind about them. They’ll get their 
jobs back or land better ones and when things are 
running proper that firm that was so high and 
mighty’ll have such a hard time finding office boys 
they’ll forget what they look like.” 

“Oh, dry up, you two, will you?” Lockwood 
put in, “ I say we don’t want any of this holdup 
business and striking. Ain’t that right, bunch? ” 

There was a roar of assent. 

“ See? Now let’s get down to something else.” 

That wasn’t the end of it, though it closed the 
discussion for the evening. A few nights later it 
was revived when Jimmy went to the bimonthly 
meeting of the Office Boys’ League. It was the 
first meeting since his election to membership, and 
while he wasn’t at all sure that he wanted to retain 
his connection with the League he still thought he’d 
drop in on them for a time until he’d made up his 
mind. 

The business session was given over to fiery talks 
by the older boys, urging concerted action for higher 
pay and freely criticizing those who were opposed to 
presenting their arguments in forecful manner. It 
became evident that there was a good deal of dis- 


A Boy PFithout a Country** 


59 


satisfaction in the League itself. Boys, blinded by 
the oratory of the various speakers, had made de- 
mands upon their employers and had, almost without 
exception, been discharged. They had, to be sure, 
soon found other places, but they had gained nothing 
by the change and had lost in the pride and pleasure 
that come from old associations. The meeting ad- 
journed after an attack upon the League’s policies 
made by one of the boys who had suffered by follow- 
ing them and with whose remarks many of those 
present seemed to agree. 

Jimmy made his way across the room to Fred. 
Fred saw him coming and said to the group around 
him, ostensibly for Jimmy’s edification, “ It’s just 
such guys as he that’s keeping the movement 
back — a lot of poor idiots that don’t know enough 
to butter their own bread.” As Jimmy came up, he 
went on: “You make me sore, Quigg. If you 
weren’t such a ’fraid-cat you’d come in on this thing 
and if you did we could get the whole bunch at Her- 
rington’s, and if Berrington’s boys went on a strike, 
a lot of others would follow. But no, you’re so 
almighty afraid you won’t get your ten per.” 

“ That’s exactly it,” Jimmy acknowledged. “ I 


6o Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

need that ten. Fm with you fellows in thinking we 
don’t get enough money mostly, but I think the way 
to get more is to show the people you work for that 
you earn it and you don’t prove that by quitting.” 

“ That’s beautiful,” one of the boys in the group 
put in, “ but it won’t work. Business is business — 
that’s what they all say, and you’ve got to hit ’em 
over the head to get your dues.” 

“ Well, you can hit ’em if you want to. I’m going 
to stick for a while ’til I see if I can’t get what I 
earn. Most likely I’ll come round to your side.” 

“ Most likely you won’t,” muttered a disgruntled 
individual, “ if you’ve got any sense. I wish I was 
back where I was before I struck. Nothing to it, 
I’ll say.” 

“ Why don’t you strike yourself, you’re so stuck 
on the idea? ” Jimmy asked, turning to Fred. “ Go 
and make your own demands to Owens and see what 
happens.” 

“And be the goat for the whole bunch? Not 
much! But don’t you worry, if I don’t get what’s 
coming to me one way I’ll get it another. Make 
no mistake on that ! ” 

“ There’s two ways of looking at that getting 


Boy Without a Country^^ 


6i 


what’s-coming-to-you-business,” — again the voice of 
the boy who had struck and lost, “ take it from me.” 
“ Humph I ” was Fred’s only comment. 


CHAPTER VIII 


FRED DISAPPEARS 

‘‘ TIMMY, old boy, we’ve got a rush on this 

^ morning and I’m going to ask you to print 
that circular on the new novels.” Bertrand looked 
at Jimmy inquiringly. 

“ I’d like to! Are you sure I can do it?” 

“You bet! Perfectly simple. I’ll show you 
how. The frames are all ready and about all you’ll 
have to do after you get one of them on the press 
is to set the thing going and feed the paper to it. 
If you can take care of that I can be working on this 
special business circular they’re in such a hurry 
about.” 

“ Lead me to it I ” 

“ Good ! I’ll show you how to go about it im- 
mediately.” 

Bertrand explained the mechanics of the printing 
press, a small affair run by electricity and used only 
for odd jobs. 


62 


I^red Disappears 63 

“ There, now,” he concluded after a few mo- 
ments, “ that’s all there is to it. I’ve got the front 
page in. When you have printed two thousand of 
them, stop and take the frame out and put in the 
frame containing the back page. It’s over there in 
the corner all ready to be slipped into place. You 
want to be sure and get the right frame. You can 
tell which it is by looking at your O. K.d proof. 
There are several frames all the same size down 
there belonging to other jobs, but if you follow your 
proof, you’ll be all right.” 

Jimmy nodded, snapped on the power, and went 
at this altogether fascinating business of converting 
a sheet of white paper into reading matter. He had 
nearly finished printing the two thousand sheets on 
one side when Ben Smith came in. Jimmy pre- 
tended not to see him, making the most of this 
opportunity to impress Ben. Ben watched him for 
a moment and then made his presence emphatically 
known. 

“ Say,” he bawled out above the noise of the 
press, “ d’you think I’m going to stand here watch- 
ing you all day? ” 

“ Oh, you Ben? ” 


64 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 


“ Yes, me Ben, and don’t make out you didn’t 
know I was here. I’d like to know since when I’ve 
got to be your messenger boy, anyhow.” 

“What’s the trouble?” Jimmy turned off the 
power and waited for Ben to explain. 

“ Helen Platt she gives me this and she says to 
take it down to you. I don’t know why I should, 
but I did. It’s against the rules to send round 
private notes; don’t you know that?” 

Jimmy flushed and reached for the envelope in 
Ben’s hands. 

“ I don’t know what it is.” 

“ Naw, of course you don’t. Most likely it’s 
company affairs — nit! Well, I know you won’t 
read it while I’m here, so I’ll beat it. You can 
bring your answer up to her yourself, unless you can 
find somebody else to do your bidding,” and Ben 
shambled out. 

Jimmy tore open the envelope. Inside was a 
penciled note. 

Jimmy : 

Would you like to go with me to-night to 
Promise Hall? We’re having a party and are 
allowed to bring a friend. I’d be glad if you 
could go. Helen. 


Fred Disappears 65 

There was no obliging messenger in Jimmy’s de- 
partment, inasmuch as he was the messenger him- 
self, so there was nothing for him to do but to reply 
in person. He gave a rueful look at his ink- 
smeared hands, but as he felt that he couldn’t spare 
the time to clean up, he went as he was. 

Helen was watching for him, though no one would 
have guessed it. To all appearances the typewriter 
before which she was sitting had her whole atten- 
tion. 

Jimmy went up to her and leaned over the desk. 

“ I’m with you,” he said; “ when do we go? ” 

“ You can come to my house after supper, about 
eight o’clock. This is where I live,” and Helen 
wrote the address on a slip of paper. 

“ I’ll be there. But what’s it all about? What 
do we do? What’s Promise Hall?” 

“ I’ll tell you on our way up. You’ll like it. 
We’ve had parties before; but I — I never went 
with any boy.” 

“Didn’t you? Well . . embarrassed, “I’ll 
be there,” he repeated. 

“ At eight; don’t forget.” 

Jimmy hurried back to the advertising office and 


66 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

attacked his printing with renewed zeal, finishing 
the two thousand sheets just before lunch time. 

In the afternoon several things came up to pre- 
vent him from starting the printing of the reverse 
side — he had to get out supplies of circulars, it 
seemed, for nearly every department in the building; 
he had to look up old cuts that hadn’t been used for 
years; he had to do innumerable errands in the 
building — and it was three o’clock before he was 
able to turn to the press. He took out the frame 
containing the first page and stood it up against the 
]vall and was just about to get the frame containing 
the second page when Ben Smith came in again. 

“ Say, Jimmy, the old man wants to see you right 
away.” 

“The old man?” 

“ Mr. Berrington.” 

“Mr. Berrington wants to see me?” 

“ That’s what he said. He says ‘ Go get Jimmy 
Quigg-’ Just like that.” 

“ I don’t see what he can want me for.” 

“ Well if I was you I’d go ’n’ find out, not stand 
there thinking about it.” 

“ I’ve got to wash up. Look at my hands I ” 


t 





But what’s it all about? 


What do we do? ” 



Fred Disappears 


67 

“ If I was you I wouldn’t wash up. When he 
says ‘ Go get Jimmy Quigg ’ without any please or 
nothing and in the voice he said it, washing up isn’t 
of any importance.” 

Jimmy had not been in Mr. Berrington’s office 
since that first day and it was with a good deal of 
trepidation that he turned the knob and walked in. 
Not only was Mr. Berrington there, but Mr. Owens 
and the cashier. 

“Is this the boy?” Mr. Berrington asked Mr. 
Owens. 

“ Yes, this is Jimmy Quigg.” 

Mr. Berrington turned to him. “ Have you seen 
Fred Garson to-day? ” 

“Fred? Why — no ” 

“ You don’t seem certain of it.” 

“I was just trying to think,” Jimmy replied; 
“ but I haven’t seen him. I’m sure.” 

“ They tell me that you are his special friend,” 
Mr. Berrington observed. 

“ I like Fred. I don’t know as I’m his special 
friend exactly.” 

“ Do you know what he was planning to do to- 
day?” 


68 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ No, he didn’t say anything particular last 
night.” 

“Last night?” Mr. Owens interjected. “You 
saw him last night? ” 

“ Yes, at the Office Boys’ League.” 

“ At the what? ” Mr. Berrington took up the ex- 
amination. 

“ The Office Boys’ League. That’s a club of 
office boys that we both belong to.” 

“ What? ” again Mr. Owens. “ You mean that 
both you and Fred belong to that bunch that’s mak- 
ing all that silly trouble among boys? ” 

“ I don’t know as you can say that. They are 
trying to look out for boys’ interests.” 

“ Yes,” Mr. Owens said. “ I read about them in 
the newspaper. They’re a radical set,” he added to 
Mr. Berrington. “ Are you and Fred in favor of 
strikes and that sort of thing? ” 

“ Fred and I don’t exactly agree. He says he 
is and I — I’m not, but I don’t think he means all 
he says sometimes.” 

Following a moment’s silence, Mr. Berrington 
spoke : 

“ The situation is pretty serious, young man, and 


69 


Fred Disappears 

it’s up to you to tell us all you know. Young Gar- 
son started for the bank early this morning with 
some bonds and other securities and he hasn’t re- 
turned. Neither has he reported at the bank. He 
has disappeared completely and with him something 
like five thousand dollars.” 

“ But — but I I can’t understand it.” 

“ Simple enough to understand,” Mr. Berrington 
snapped. “ Those are the facts. Now, then, do 
you know of anything that will help us? The 
poor little fool, to think he could put over anything 
like that. He’ll be in jail in a few hours or a few 
days and that’ll finish him for life.” 

“ Oh, but I don’t believe it,” Jimmy began in an- 
gry protest. “ Fred was always talking that — that 
way.” He stopped suddenly, realizing that he had 
made a damaging admission. 

“ Talking what way? ” Mr. Owens demanded. 

‘‘ Saying things that he didn’t mean,” Jimmy ex- 
plained lamely. 

“ Yes,” Mr. Berrington put in, “ like what? Be 
specific.” 

“Why — why I can’t.” 

“ Yes, yes, you can, too. It’s no laughing matter. 


JO Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

boy. Don’t you know that you’ll be held as an 
accomplice in the theft if you withhold any infor- 
mation that would help the law take its course? ” 

“ But I don’t know anything! I was just thinking 
of the way he talked, like — well, he was always 
saying that he’d get what was coming to him and — 
and things like that. But that didn’t mean any- 
thing, really. Believe that,” Jimmy pleaded, 
“ please believe that. I’m sorry I said anything.” 

“ That’s just about my sizing up of the situation. 
He’ll get what’s coming to him. Humph! We’ll 
see that he does! ” Mr. Owens spoke with grim 
emphasis. 

“ It’s a terrible pity,” Mr. Berrington said in an 
aside to Mr. Owens, “ that we aren’t insured against 
this sort of thing. If we were, you know, all we’d 
have to do would be to call in representatives of the 
insurance company and put it up to them. They’d 
conduct the investigations and make good the loss. 

“ I’m surprised,” turning to the cashier, “ that you 
trusted so large a sum of money to a boy you don’t 
know anything about.” 

The cashier hastily interposed: “ Garson had been 
with us a year. He seemed honest, and was a 


Fred Disappears 71 

likable chap. I suppose we have grown careless. 
We’ve always used the boy in my department for 
bank errands, never had any trouble before, and so 
haven’t been on the lookout for such a possibility; 
besides, it’s such a little ways to the bank ” 

Mr. Berrington cut him short. “ No use talking 
about it, now that the deed’s done. But guard 
against a repetition, Owens. Insure the depart- 
ment. In the present unfortunate circumstance 
we’ll have to call in the police. And you, young 
man ” — returning to Jimmy, who had stood during 
this conversation uncomfortably awaiting the pleas- 
ure of his superiors — “ would better be prepared 
to help all you can. In the meantime not a word of 
this to any one; do you understand? ” 

Jimmy nodded. 

“ That’s all; you may go back to your work now.” 

“ Couldn’t all this be a mistake? ” Jimmy asked 
desperately. “ Couldn’t he have been robbed or 
something? ” 

“ If he was we’ll find it out soon enough.” 

On his way back to the office, Ben Smith stopped 
him. “What did they want?” he whispered. 

“ Nothing much.” 


72 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ No, I shouldn’t think so from your looks. You 
needn’t tell if you don’t want to.” 

“ Don’t ask me,” Jimmy gulped, “ don’t ask me. 
I — I can’t tell,” and he made a quick retreat. He 
was glad no one down in his department knew 
about the ordeal through which he had just passed; 
he didn’t want to make any explanations. 

“ I was wondering how soon you’d get back on 
that printing job,” Bertrand remarked as he came 
in. 

“ Right away,” Jimmy replied, making an ef- 
fort to appear natural, though there was a queer 
feeling at the pit of his stomach and his knees 
shook. He seemed to see everything through a 
fog and all the while he was saying over to him- 
self : “ He didn’t do it. He couldn’t.” 

He went to the corner and took up a frame of 
type and put it on the press, adjusting it as he had 
been shown. Then he wearily picked up a stack of 
circulars which had been printed on the one side and 
proceeded to print them on the other. He did all 
this mechanically. He saw neither circular nor 
printing press, but only Fred as he had seen him the 
night before, a scornful expression on his face, and 


73 


Fred Disappears 

he heard him say again: “If I don’t get what’s 
coming to me one way I’ll get it another. Make 
no mistake on that.” 

About half the pile of circulars had been run off 
when Bertrand stepped over and took one of them 
up casually. His exclamation brought Jimmy at 
once to the present. 

“ Good Lord, boy ! Do you know what you’re 
doing? You’ve got half of the novel circular and 
half of the circular on farm books. Stop the press ! 
I should suppose common sense would tell you pic- 
tures of pigs ” — Bertrand pointed disgustedly to the 
side which Jimmy was printing — “ don’t go with 
fiction.” 

Jimmy looked at the offending sheet of paper stu- 
pidly. “ I’m — I’m sorry.” 

“Sorry! I should think you’d better be. All 
that paper wasted. Throw it away. Get it out of 
sight! All the time lost, too! I ought to have 
known better than to have put you at the work. I 
told you to watch out and get the right frame. You 
must have grabbed the first one you came to without 
looking at your proofs. Hereafter I’ll do the 
printing myself.” 


74 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Something happened . . . and I got sort of 
upset.” 

“Yes, I should think you must have,” Bertrand 
agreed icily. “ My fault, though ; I ought to have 
known better.” 

“ Don’t say that ! I like to do it so much.” 

“ So it seems.” 

“ And I can do it, too, and I will, if you’ll let 
me. I’ll stay to-night and print them over. I’ll 
— I’ll do anything.” 

“ Not much you’ll stay to-night. I’ll print these 
myself. We’ll see what we shall see as to whether 
you get another try at it or not.” Bertrand was 
hardly more than a boy himself and already he was 
regretting his harshness. He had always liked 
Jimmy. “ It was an absolutely fool stunt, you’ve 
got to admit that,” he concluded, a bit more softly. 

It was only an hour to closing time, but how that 
hour dragged for Jimmy, partly because he had 
nothing to do. Bertrand wouldn’t trust him around 
the presses, he wouldn’t even allow him to take 
proofs, and no one came to him for supplies. He 
just had to sit and think. While his mind dwelt 
much of the time on his own unfortunate mistake, 


Fred Disappears 75 

Fred occupied a large part of his thoughts. Where 
was he? What was he doing? Couldn’t he do 
something to help him? 

He had entirely forgotten about the party for 
that evening, but he was reminded of it as he came 
out of the building on his way home, Helen was 
standing just outside the door. “ Don’t forget,” 
she whispered, as he passed by. 

“ Say,” he began, intending to tell her that he 
couldn’t come, “ I can’t — come.” Then he 
thought better of it. Why shouldn’t he go? What 
was there he could do that night? “ I can’t come,” 
he repeated, “ until about quarter after eight.” 

“ Oh you ! ” Helen drawled out, “ I thought you 
was going to say you couldn’t come, then I’d be 
mad.” 

“ I’ll be there with bells on,” Jimmy rejoined 
gayly and turned away from her and went wearily 
homeward. 


CHAPTER IX 


PROMISE HALL 


TALL, square building of yellow brick, almost 



1 . forbidding in its plainness, relieved only by 
an arched doorway of ample proportions; squalid 
buildings on either side; a narrow street littered 
with papers and rubbish — such were Promise Hall 
and its surroundings. 

Within its walls was being tried a novel experi- 
ment in citizen making. A benefactor of large 
vision, and a pocketbook which knew few limitations, 
was working out, with the cooperation of others, also 
men and women of ideas, schemes that were dear to 
him and to them, and which had for their purpose 
the enrichment of American life. To these com- 
modious rooms they invited the boys and girls of the 
city without reference to nationality, creed, or color. 
And the boys and girls of the city came, at first, that 
was years before, timidly, but soon joyfully. You 


Promise Hall 


77 


could see them at night, before the doors were open, 
crowding the entrance way, shouting and laughing 
and clamoring for admittance, though they knew 
perfectly well that exactly at seven o’clock the build- 
ing would be opened to them, not one minute before, 
not one minute later. Occasionally a father or a 
mother came, their bulky figures looming large in 
the crowd of youngsters, like giants among pigmies. 
Perhaps they came out of curiosity to see what it 
was that so held Tony or Micky or Rosy. If that 
was their motive they went away satisfied. 

When Jimmy and Helen arrived that night at 
Promise Hall the doors had been open nearly an 
hour, so that all was quiet outside and Jimmy was 
quite unprepared for the sight that met his eyes 
inside. 

“ Gee ! ” he exclaimed, “ what a mob.” 

Helen looked around appraisingly. “ Just about 
the same as usual. It won’t look so many when they 
sit down. We’re early. You can put your hat in 
the cloak room over there and wait here for me. 
I’ll be back in a minute.” 

His hat disposed of, Jimmy took his stand near 
the door. The boys and girls were thoroughly en- 


78 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

joying themselves. They stood in little groups, 
laughing and chatting. They ran about bumping 
good-naturedly into each other. They played a 
disorganized game of tag in and about the more se- 
date conversationalists. They hurled greetings the 
whole length of the hall, thereby adding to the din. 
The louder the racket the broader their smiles. 

Helen returned. 

“ I thought you said they was very strict here,” 
Jimmy volunteered. 

“ They are ! Just wait until they get started. 
They always let us act this way until they’re ready 
to begin.” 

“Oh! ” 

“ Yes, and there goes the whistle now.” 

With the words there came a shrill blast three 
times, and its effect was magical. Not that the sev- 
eral hundred boys and girls stopped talking at once 
or refrained from giving a final friendly grab at a 
neighbor’s tie. Still, as promptly as was in keeping 
with their dignity, they turned to the far end of the 
hall where the chairs had been arranged in formal 
rows and took seats. 


Promise Hall 


79 


A young man stood on a platform facing them, 
awaiting their attention. In less than five minutes 
they were all seated and were looking up at him ex- 
pectantly. He began: 

“ To-night the various clubs of Promise Hall are, 
as you know, meeting together, boys and girls. 
We haven’t had many of these union sociables and 
we hope that from now on we can have them more 
frequently. Before we turn to our entertainment, 
which is to be furnished by one of the girls’ clubs 
and one of the boys’ clubs, there is something I 
wish to say to you. That’s the real reason for this 
get-together. 

“How many of you know what a pageant is?” 

A dozen hands shot up. 

“ All right, Morris, you tell us.” 

A stocky boy of dark complexion rose to his feet. 

“ A pageant is like a theater, Mr. Wilbur, only 
you don’t have talking in it.” He sat down. 

“ That’s not such a bad definition at that,” Mr. 
Wilbur began, “ You mean, I suppose, that it’s like 
a play in pantomime. That’s not altogether right. 
Usually there is no speaking in a pageant, but some 


8o Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

of the time there is. For our present purposes let’s 
say that a pageant is a series of pictures which make 
clear the progress of events. 

“ You all know what tableaux are. We have had 
them many a time. A pageant is made up of mov- 
ing tableaux.” He paused that his words might 
take effect. He repeated: “A pageant is a series 
of moving tableaux, depicting the course of events.” 

In a moment he went on : “ Well, we’re going to 
have a pageant, the biggest and most wonderful 
thing we have ever attempted in Promise Hall and 
we want all the boys and girls of all the clubs to 
take part in it. ‘ America ’ we’re going to call our 
pageant, and we shall try to show just what Amer- 
ica means, just what our country stands for, by a 
series of moving tableaux, from the time when 
Columbus first discovered the island of San Salvador 
to the present day. 

“ It means lots of work, not only in getting to- 
gether our costumes and our scenery, for we shall 
make everything ourselves, but it means the study 
of history and of geography and of many other 
things in order that our tableaux may be accurate.” 


Promise Hall 


8i 


“When’s this show coming off, Mr. Wilbur?” 
one of the boys called out. 

“ It Is to be presented on October 12, Columbus 
Day. We shall give it here In this room, and all 
your parents and friends will be Invited to come. 

“ Now, then, down to business. The leader of a 
club will act as the organizer of that club. I have 
assigned definite work to each group. Some will 
prepare the costumes under the direction of the 
sewing teacher. This will mean, as you can see, 
looking up pictures of the clothes worn in the differ- 
ent periods of our history. Others have been as- 
signed to the construction section and will build the 
scenery. They will be directed by our manual 
training teacher. Others, the older groups, will 
work out the tableaux and choose the significant Inci- 
dents to be presented. So on through the list. 
Each club will have its part, and if we all work to- 
gether we shall bring about a glorious finale. 

“ On the slips of paper which are now being dis- 
tributed to you have been written the names of the 
clubs, the work to which each has been assigned, the 
hours of work, and at the bottom of the sheet the 


82 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

schedule of rehearsals. Keep these for reference. 

“ I am now glad to turn the meeting over to Bella 
Ludwig and Peter Mollinetti of the Sunshine and 
Star Clubs respectively, who will look out for your 
entertainment. We will close, as always, with the 
grand march.” 

There followed a miscellaneous program of music 
and recitations, winding up with a dramatic skit, all 
of the numbers being wildly applauded. 

“ Is this all? ” Jimmy whispered to Helen. 

“ All except the march. We’re allowed to stay 
around and talk now until ten o’clock. Then they’ll 
begin playing the piano and we get in line, boys on 
one side and girls on the other. We march around 
for a time and finally parade right up to the cloak 
rooms and get our things. That’s the way we al- 
ways get out.” 

“ Some scheme, isn’t it? ” 

“ Yes. Would you like to go around the build- 
ing? ” 

“ I certainly would.” 

“ Come along, then.” Helen led him first down- 
stairs to the gymnasium, pointing out its many ex- 


Promise Hall 83 

cellencies. “ The girls have it three nights and the 
boys have it three,” she explained. 

The first floor was given over entirely to the hall. 
At the sides and back was a balcony and opening on 
this many little doors. These aroused Jimmy’s cu- 
riosity. “What’s in there?” he asked. 

“ Those are rooms where we study.” 

“ Study? ” 

“ Yes. You see, this Promise Hall isn’t all hav- 
ing games and parties. If you belong to it, you have 
to study or work or do something.” 

“ What does your club do? ” 

“ We sew. Our teacher she shows us how to 
make dresses and mend things. She’s got the most 
wonderful ideas about saving clothes and using them 
over and over.” 

“ What do the boys’ clubs do? ” 

“ Some of them are carpentry clubs and some of 
them are debating clubs and some study civics and 
all sorts of things.” 

“ How often do you have to study? ” 

“ One night a week. Why, would you like to 
belong? ” 


84 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Could I?” 

“ Costs nothing to belong. All you have to do is 
to say you want to.” 

“ I’ll think about it. I guess maybe I’d like to, 
if ” 

“If what?” 

“Oh, nothing.” 

For a brief period he had forgotten Fred Gar- 
son. He had been remembering him all too keenly 
up to the time when he had entered Promise Hall, 
but he had been so flooded with new interests there 
that the worry and perplexity had left him tem- 
porarily. 

“ You needn’t tell me if you don’t want to.” 

“ I haven’t got anything to tell. I’d like to join 
if — if I can find the time.” 

“ Oh! ” Helen said, but in a tone which did not 
indicate satisfaction with the explanation. 

As they stood looking down from the balcony, 
Jimmy’s eyes were caught by a motto in bronze let- 
ters that had been stenciled on the wall near the 
ceiling. “ Here shall they all unite to build the re- 
public of man and the kingdom of God,” he read. 


Promise Hall 85 

Helen’s eyes followed his. “ That’s from a play. 
Mr. Wilbur told us about it.” 

Then came the signal from the pianist and down 
they hurried to take their places in the grand march, 
side by side with those who had come from the north 
and the east and the south and the west. 


CHAPTER X 


JIMMY SEEKS HELP 


HE next morning Fred’s disappearance was 



X the chief topic of conversation in the Herring- 
ton offices. The news of it had gotten around in 
some way, as such news always does. 

Fred had now been away an entire day, his ab- 
sence had been noticed by some of the boys, and 
questions had been asked. A careless word or two, 
dropped by the cashier in the presence of his ste- 
nographer, had served to supply one link. Another 
was furnished by a boy who had heard Fred say 
that he was going to the bank “ with a lot of dough.” 
Ben Smith had added his little testimony about 
Jimmy’s session in the president’s office. Soon the 
chain of circumstantial evidence was complete. 

“Humph! You don’t need to tell us nothing 
about it now,” was Ben’s greeting to Jimmy. “ Gar- 
son’s lit out and taken some of the company’s coin 
with him — fifty thousand, I hear it was.” 


Jimmy Seeks Help 87 

“ It isn’t so,” Jimmy hotly retorted. ‘‘ Where 
did you get that idea? ” 

“ Well, if it wasn’t fifty thousand, it was a lot! ” 

“ That shows how much you know about it,” 
Jimmy flung back and went on to his office, wonder- 
ing, however, just what Ben did know. Well, he 
thought, they couldn’t blame him for having dis- 
closed anything. He hadn’t opened his mouth on 
the subject! He was glad it was out, however; it 
would have been difficult keeping silent and pursuing 
his ordinary course with events such as these stirring 
in the air. 

About noon Mr. Berrington sent for him. “ He’s 
got a detective in there with him,” Ben Smith volun- 
teered. “ The cashier and Mr. Owens have just 
been in.” 

“ Well, young man,” Mr. Berrington began, 
when he had explained to the grim individual sitting 
beside him that this was Jimmy Quigg, Carson’s 
friend, “ have you seen anything of Carson, or 
heard anything of him?” 

“ No, sir.” 

“ What did you do last evening? Co to that Of- 
fice Boys’ League?” 


88 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ No, sir, I went to Promise Hall.” 

“You are a young man of varied interests! 
Promise Hall one night. Office Boys’ League the 
next,” somewhat sarcastically. 

Jimmy flushed. “ I went to Promise Hall last 
night for the first time. One of the girls here asked 
me to go.” 

“ Oh, I see,” a little more kindly. 

“ Everybody knows about Fred’s being away, but 
I didn’t tell,” Jimmy was made bold to volunteer. 

“ I expected it would get out. It doesn’t make 
any special difference as I see.” Mr. Berrington 
turned to the detective, “ Anything you want to ask 
him? ” 

The man shook his head. “ No, I guess you’ve 
given me all the facts I need for the present,” he 
said. 

Mr. Berrington thought for a moment and then 
nodded to Jimmy. “ That’s all for now.” 

For Jimmy the day passed in routine jobs. Ber- 
trand was glum, barely aknowledging his existence 
and giving him nothing to do but the simplest tasks. 
Five o’clock brought with it a welcome escape. 


89 


Jimmy Seeks Help 

At home he told his mother of Fred’s trouble. 

“ Isn’t that the boy that you said you didn’t 
know whether you liked or not?” Mrs. Quigg 
asked. 

At once Jimmy was on the defensive in Fred’s be- 
half. “ I don’t remember as I ever said I didn’t like 
him. He’s sort of peculiar in some ways. You re- 
member him, don’t you, from the night of the meet- 
ing here? He was the tall boy, nice looking, and he 
made a speech about standing up for our rights.” 

“ Yes, I remember him,” Mrs. Quigg answered. 
“ I wasn’t ’specially struck with him.” 

“ But, mother, he’s all right. He’s just different, 
but he wouldn’t do a thing like this, I know he 
wouldn’t.” 

“ Time will tell.” 

“Yes, but I can’t wait. They’re mixing me up 
in it, too.” 

“Mixing you up? What do you mean, son?” 
Mrs. Quigg had lost her casual interest. 

“ Oh, they keep asking me if I’ve seen him and 
if I know where he is.” 

“ They do I ” in frightened exclamation. “ Why 
should they do that? ” 


90 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Well, you see, I’ve probably had more to do 
with him thari most of the others.” 

“ But you haven’t run away. I don’t like their 
questioning you.” 

Then Jimmy reassured her, though it must be ad- 
mitted he had suffered some qualms of uneasiness 
on that score himself. “ It isn’t that they’re sus- 
picious of me; it’s just that they’re trying to get 
all the dope they can that’ll lead to locating him.” 

This explanation served to chase the mother’s 
worry away and the subject was soon dropped. 

After supper Jimmy announced that he was going 
to take a run over to the Office Boys’ League. 

“ I can talk about Fred’s being away now, and I 
want to see if any of the boys over there know any- 
thing about it. Might get some ideas.” 

Mrs. Quigg was about to object to his going, but 
bit back the words and said nothing. “ Don’t be 
too late, son; I’ll be sitting up.” 

Jimmy had thought the Office Boys’ League a 
rather unprepossessing organization on his intro- 
duction to it, and his first feeling of revolt came 
back again this night, but intensified tenfold. A 
more disgruntled and unhappy lot of lads he had 


91 


Jimmy Seeks Help 

never seen. Things were not going their way. 
The strikes which the League had fostered were 
failures, and there was little in common to hold the 
members together. Bitterness and disgust with the 
organization were about the only qualities they 
shared with one another. 

Jimmy spied the president and made for him. 

“ Say, Dykes,” he began, “ Fred Garson’s disap- 
peared ; went to the bank with some money and didn’t 
come back. Most likely been robbed. Don’t you 
think the League ought to do something? ” He 
then outlined the circumstances somewhat more 
fully. 

Dykes deliberated. “ Don’t see what we can do. 
Suppose I get the fellows here together and you tell 
’em about it.” 

He suited word to action and soon had a sem- 
blance of attention. After briefly commenting on 
the case, he called on Jimmy. 

Jimmy rose, somewhat embarrassed, as he was not 
used to making speeches. 

“ I haven’t any plan,” he began, “ only I thought 
as long as this club is supposed to help fellows, it’d 
want to do something for Garson. He’s one of 


92 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

your best members and he’s in trouble. Up at the 
company, they seem to think he’s a thief. If we 
just told Mr. Berrington we didn’t think so and 
that we believed he’d been robbed or that something 
had happened to him, it might help some. Sort of 
indorse him, you know.” 

A boy was instantly on his feet. 

“How do you get that way!” he sneered. 
“ We’ve each got our own troubles. Don’t let’s 
be mixing up in anybody else’s, I say. Maybe he 
did get away with the coin. I don’t like this here 
taking responsibility for him. Nothing doing, noth- 
ing doing! ” 

There were calls of “ You bet,” “ that’s the stuff,” 
“ take it away,” “ what do you think we are? ” from 
various parts of the room. When the hubbub had 
subsided, Jimmy spoke, this time in a flare of anger: 

“Is that the kind of quitters you are? That’s 
about what I thought. You talk a lot about acting 
together and this is the way you do it.” 

Another boy sprang up and made for Jimmy 
threateningly. 

“Who are you?” he demanded, “that you 


Jimmy Seeks Help 93 

should come here and tell us what to do? I’d like 
to throw you out,” and his hands clenched. 

Jimmy stood rigidly regarding him. 

“ Sic him! ” some one yelled, and that broke the 
tension. The would-be assaulter stepped backward 
a bit. 

“ If anybody wants to find out who I am or what 
I am. I’m ready to tell him,” Jimmy said. 

“Hear, hear! Let’s make a ring, and give me 
a front seat,” came a shrill voice. 

“ Go to it. Digs, don’t let him bluff you like that,” 
another sang out. 

Jimmy squared his shoulders and prepared for 
the attack which he thought must inevitably follow. 
His nerves tingled for the fray. But before the 
other was ready for the battle — he seemed not so 
eager for it, now that it was pressing upon him — 
the president interfered. 

“ Come on, boys, cut the rough stuff I ” he com- 
manded curtly. 

Jimmy’s would-be assailant very willingly obeyed, 
but Jimmy’s muscles quivered for one good tussle. 

“ If you’ve got anything further to say, say it 


94 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

and be done.” Dykes spoke gruffly. His sympa- 
thy, too, was apparently not with Jimmy. 

“ Isn’t there anybody here,” Jimmy asked, and his 
voice sounded high and strained, not at all like his 
own, “ who’s with me? Isn’t there anybody who’d 
like to do a little scouting around? Even if you 
don’t believe in putting an O. K. on Garson, don’t 
you believe in looking about to see what you can 
see? Why, there’s no telling what we could find 
out if we’d all turn to. You know Garson’s friends; 
some of you know where he lived, what he used to 
do ! A little detective work, twenty or thirty of us 
strong, would be sure to show up something ! I be- 
lieve it would square Garson. What do you say? ” 

There was silence, and then somebody drawled: 
“ Aw, leave dat to de cops.” 

“ Then I’m through with you,” Jimmy flung out 
in a final burst of passion, “ you’re a bunch of fakers 
and I’ll tell the world so! — ” and jamming his hat 
on to his head he stamped across the room and out 
of the door, slamming it behind him. 


CHAPTER XI 


A CLUE 



‘HERE was Irish blood in Jimmy Quigg and 


A he reacted very quickly to circumstances. He 
would have moments of dark despair when he felt 
that he was shirking his duty in not giving all his 
time to searching for Fred. He was sure that 
Fred was innocent, and he felt that all the others 
were against him or at best were unsympathetic to- 
ward him. At these times he criticized himself 
severely for falling short of an obligation. 

But again he would be carried far away from se- 
rious things by his keen relish of a good time. This 
ability to rebound was not all due to the fact that 
his forbears had lived on the Emerald Isle. It was, 
in part, youth ! 

Periods of hot passion, such as his fierce denun- 
ciation of the Office Boys’ League, would alternate 
with periods of light-heartedness. So it came about 
that one night, not far removed from his visit to 


95 


96 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

the O. B. L. quarters, found him in Promise Hall, 
a recognized member of one of the boys’ clubs and 
busily engaged in learning all that he could about 
Columbus, with particular reference to Columbus’ 
ship, the Santa Maria, a replica of which the boys 
were to furnish for the opening tableau of “ Amer- 
ica.” 

The leader of the club had been reading from a 
history all about Columbus’ sailing and the size and 
equipment of the boats. This formality over, the 
boys were now discussing the way in which they 
should go about making the miniature vessel from 
the materials at their disposal. 

“ Great Caesar ! I don’t wonder they have a 
holiday for Columbus,” Jimmy volunteered. “ Any 
guy that would set out on the ocean in a boat like 
his was ought to have a week of holidays; it was so 
little, and such a funny shape. I’d hate to have to 
sail around a bathtub in it.” 

“ It was a pretty good craft for those days,” ob- 
served Mr. Magrue, the manual training teacher, 
who was directing the group. 

“ I’m glad I didn’t live in those days, and if I 
had I’d stayed on land,” Jimmy confessed. 


A Clue 


97 


“What’s the idea, you a ’fraid-cat?” one of the 
boys asked. “ Don’t you ever go out in rowboats 
or launches? Gee, I’ll bet they couldn’t get you 
into an airplane.” 

Jimmy scoffed, “That’s different! You just bet 
I’d get into an airplane if I had the chance, but — 
that’s modern.” 

“ Probably that’s what they said,” Mr. Magrue 
suggested, “ in Columbus’ day. ‘ Modern ’ is only 
a relative term. But while this discussion is very 
interesting it isn’t getting us anywhere, and we have 
only a few weeks to whip this whole thing into shape. 
There is a lot to do besides building a ship, so let’s 
get busy. We’re going to make our model just 
one-sixth the size of the original. Here are our 
plans to work on, and our wood and cloth and card- 
board are stacked at the other end of this room. 
We must be careful not to waste materials. A good 
workman is never wasteful.” 

Various boys were assigned to marking off the 
lumber, others took hammer and saw, and the place 
soon sounded like a carpentry shop on a rush job. 

Jimmy, almost lost in a pair of borrowed overalls 
far too big for him, was sawing a long, rough beam 


98 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

into even lengths and singing an improvised song 
as he worked: 

“ If the Office Boys’ League could see me now, 

If the Office Boys’ League could see me now ” 

He repeated the lines several times and seemed to 
get huge satisfaction from it. 

“ If the Office Boys’ League could see me now, 

If the Office Boys’ League could see me now, 
There’d be a riot sure, I vow.” 

He stopped and laughed. 

“ You got ’em again? ” his neighbor inquired. 

“ Yes, I was just thinking that we aren’t union 
men. No good carpenter works at night, it’s 
agin’ the rules. If you don’t believe it ask the 
O. B. L.” 

His companion jeered. “ Look at the way you 
sawed the last piece of wood. You don’t think 
you’re 2l good carpenter, do you? Don’t see how 
you could do it so crooked without trying. You’ve 
slanted down about two inches.” 

Jimmy eyed his handiwork carefully. “ It isn’t 
straight, is it? Well, that’s the way they used to 
saw ’em when they built Columbus’ boat.” 


A Clue 


99 

“ You let Magrue see it and he’ll tell you it isn’t 
the way they saw ’em now.” 

“ Oh, I wish they’d given me something else to 

do, I Hello ! what’re the girls coming in here 

for?” This, as six or eight girls, marshalled by 
their teacher, hesitated at the doorway. Jimmy, 
catching sight of Helen among the others, impor- 
tantly returned to his work. He knew she was 
watching him and he wanted her to see him in the 
full exercise of this manly art. 

“ They’re going to work on the cloth for the 
sails. I’ll bet. See! What did I tell you? Mr. 
Magrue is getting it out and motioning to them to 
come up his way.” 

Helen had paused near Jimmy, but Jimmy never 
raised his eyes. 

“Hello, Jimmy!” He looked up, apparently 
startled. 

“ Why, hello, Helen,” as if in surprise. “ What 
are you doing here? ” 

“ Sewing. How do you like your job? ” 

“Fine; I’m chief carpenter. What have you 
been working on? ” 

“ Oh, we’ve been working on the costumes. You 


lOO Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

ought to see the clothes Columbus is going to wear. 
You can’t see ’em yet, you wouldn’t understand ’em, 
’cause they’re not put together, but of course we 
girls can see what they’re going to look like from the 
pieces and they’re simply grand.” 

“You ought to see the boat,” Jimmy rallied, 
“ but of course you wouldn’t understand about that 
from the plans and lumber. It’s going to be some 
boat — only I wouldn’t want to sail in it. What 
part you going to have in the pageant?” 

“ I think I’m going to be an Indian in the first 
part, but I’ve got to go now; they’re all up there 
but me I ” 

“ Oh, you Indian,” Jimmy called after her. 
“You Poca — Poca — hontas.” 

“Who’s the girl?” Jimmy’s talkative side part- 
ner asked. 

“ She works down where I do; her name’s Helen 
Platt.” 

“ Where do you work? ” 

“ Herrington Publishing Company.” 

“What doing, office boy?” 

“ Yep, and other things.” 

“ Do you belong to the Office Boys’ League? ” 


A Clue 


lOI 


“ Not any more.” 

“ You did belong? ” 

“ Yes.” Jimmy sawed vigorously. 

“ What’s the matter — don’t you like ’em? ” 

“ Say, what’s the idea of all this cross-examina- 
tion business? I did belong to the Office Boys’ 
League and I don’t belong and that’s all there is 
to it. 

“ Me father and mother were Irish, 

Me father and mother were Irish, 

Me father and mother were Irish, 

And I am Irish too,” 

he sang. 

“ You’re a funny guy,” the boy commented. 

“ Funny by name and funny by nature,” Jimmy re- 
torted. 

Thus they passed the evening, working a little, 
joshing a little, learning a little. 

Ten o’clock came surprisingly soon, bringing with 
it the grand march and exit. Jimmy singled out 
Helen from the crowd on the steps outside and 
hurried to her. 

“ I’m walking down your way,” he said. 

“ All right,” she agreed, and they started off 
together. 


102 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Halfway down the block a boy touched Jimmy on 
the arm. 

“ Say you, Quigg, can I speak to you a minute? ’’ 

“ You bet; what is it? ” 

“ I belong to the Office Boys’ League,” he said, 
pulling Jimmy a step or two away from Helen and 
speaking in whispers. “ I was over there the other 
night when you gave ’em the deuce. I didn’t say 
anything, but I agreed with you.” 

“ Is that all you’ve got to tell me? If so, I don’t 
see why you’re coming out with it here. Seems to 
me you might have had a little spirit down at the 
Office Boys’ League. It’s too late, now.” 

“ I know it, but I was afraid to say anything 
then.” 

“ All right, enough said.” 

“ But that isn’t all,” the boy interjected hastily. 
“ I live in the same street where Garson used to 
and know something that will help find Fred, I 
think.” 

“You do!” Jimmy seized him by the arm. 
“What is it? Why didn’t you say so before?” 

“ We couldn’t do anything about it to-night. You 
come to my house to-morrow night and I’ll tell you.” 


A Clue 


103 


“ Where do you live and what’s your name? ” 

“ Pete Jacobs, and I live on Fender Street right 
near Second Avenue, number 420, top floor back. 
Garson lived across the street, number 41 1. What 
time will you be down? ” 

“ Seven o’clock.” 

“ All right, 420 Fender.” 

Jimmy hurried on to Helen who was waiting a 
few yards away. 

“ What’d he want?” she asked. “Something 
about Fred? ” 

“ Yes, that boy thinks he’s got a clue.” 

“ I don’t see why you bother so much on Fred’s 
account; it probably won’t amount to anything.” 

“ No, I don’t suppose it will, but it might and 
anyway it’s kind of exciting,” Jimmy confessed 
naively. 


CHAPTER XII 


JIMMY DECIDES 

J IMMY was right on time for his appointment 
the next evening. Climbing to the top floor of 
the tenement house at the address Pete had given, 
he knocked on the door at the head of the stairs. 
Pete himself opened it and led him into the sitting 
room, a crowded, littered, ill-smelling place which 
looked out upon a court and a maze of wash lines 
still hung with the week’s wash. There was no 
one else in the room. 

“ Ma’s gone out to fetch some wash home,” Pete 
explained. 

“Well, what do you know?” Jimmy asked 
eagerly. “ You’ve had me guessing on this propo- 
sition all day.” 

“ I don’t know anything; I’ve seen somebody.” 
“Not Fred I” 

“ Nope, I’ve seen Alex.” 


104 


Jimmy Decides 


105 


“Alex?” 

“ Fred’s old man, leastwise the man he lived 
with.” 

“ Yes, yes,” Jimmy interrupted impatiently, “but 
I thought he was missing, too ; that’s what they said, 
that since Fred had gone they hadn’t been able to 
get hold of Alex, either.” 

“ Sure,” Pete put in, in a superior way, “ that’s 
just the point; Alex has disappeared, but I seen 
him!” 

“Where? How? Tell me!” 

“ Just seen him coming out of his house.” Pete 
was apparently trying to be tantalizing by holding 
back his information as long as he could. 

“ But I thought they were watching his house,” 
Jimmy said. 

“ Well, they do watch it most of the time, but 
they wasn’t watching it this time. It was too early 
for them.” 

“ Will you tell me the whole thing? What’s the 
idea, anyhow, in being so slow about it? You make 
me sick.” 

“ I pretty near told you it all now. Three days 
ago as I was going to work — I help on a milk 


io6 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

wagon and have to get out and get started at two 
o’clock in the morning — well, as I was going to 
work, I saw Alex. That’s all there is to it, or most 
all.” 

‘‘ Did he see you? ” 

“ Don’t think so. I had just come down to our 
first floor and was standing in the entry when I saw 
this man come out from the house across the street. 
He’d got a little brown bag in one hand and a 
package in the other. He looked around sort of 
carefully and then he came down the steps and 
started up the street, but I’d got a good look at 
him and Alex is a man you don’t forget once you 
seen him. Even though he does cut his hair short 
and shave off his whiskers and put on colored 
glasses, he can’t help showing that he’s a tall, 
skinny guy. Besides he holds his head on one side 
like this,” and Pete illustrated. “ He always holds 
it that way as though he’d got a stiff neck. Some- 
thing the matter with his spinal colyum, I guess.” 

“Well, is that all?” Jimmy said in evident dis- 
appointment. “ You saw him and he got away and 
that’s the whole story? ” 

“ I know where he went.” 


Jimmy Decides 107 

“You do?” in exasperation. “Well, why in 
thunder didn’t you say so? ” 

“ Was going to only you didn’t give me time. 
Almost lost my job by following him, but I did just 
the same. He didn’t see me, anyhow not until he’d 
got down to the ferryhouse and had bought his ticket. 
By that time I’d heard him say the place he was 
headed for and that’s all I wanted. I beat it then. 
Only kept the boss waiting a quarter of an hour, 
but the things he said to me almost curdled the milk 
in the bottles.” 

“ I don’t care a continental what your old milk 
boss said to you. Where did Alex go? ” 

“ Westvale.” 

“ Westvale?” 

“Yes; that’s a town out in Jersey about ten miles. 
I went there once to see a guy that was my side 
partner when I had an office job.” 

“ Westvale,” Jimmy mused, “ so that’s where 
they are.” He was silent for a moment. Then: 
“ Do you know, Pete, this thing makes me sure that 
Fred’s all right, that it’s Alex and his gang that 
are making the real trouble and that have got the 
dough.” 


io8 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Maybe; don’t know about that.” 

“ I think,” Jimmy said, “ that you ought to have 
told the police.” 

“ What’s the use in tellin’ them? I thought you 
wanted some sport, I thought you wanted — accord- 
ing to your high-sounding talk down at the Office 
Boys’ League — to have a hand in clearing this up 
yourself. What are you telling the police for, then, 
if that’s the case? ” 

“ It would be sort of fun doing it — but I don’t 
know ” 

“ Tell you what, if you’re good for it I’ll get time 
off and we’ll go out to Westvale together. Unless 
I miss my bet Alex will be back to-night. He’s 
been coming regular and always toting off a 
satchel full of something and a package. We could 
take that first train to Westvale, it leaves at half 
past three, and it’s a cinch he’d be on the train. 
Now that I know where he goes and how he goes, 
we wouldn’t have to arouse any suspicions by sneak- 
ing around after him, anyway not till we reached 
Westvale. Then we’d have to look out and not 
lose him.” 

“ Isn’t there more than one train to Westvale? ” 


Jimmy Decides 109 

“ No, not at that time or hour. This one is run 
to take the mail out to the suburbs all along the 
line.” 

“ You mean,” Jimmy hesitated, “ that we should 
go to-morrow morning? Why, that’s only about 
seven or eight hours off.” 

“ You was looking for adventure and are great 
for running down criminals and all that sort of busi- 
ness; well here you are.” 

“ I’ve a good notion to do it. It would be fun 
to find out where they are, and then, when we 
found out, we could tip off the police and that would 
be all there’d be to it. I — I’ll do it.” 

“ Fine business. We’ll have a little sport out of 
this yet.” 

“ I’ll have to go home and tell my mother. She’ll 
be scared silly. She’s awful nervous now about this 
thing, can’t see why I don’t let it alone, is afraid I’ll 
get mixed up in it.” 

“ I supposed you’d have to go home. You could 
go now and get a few hours’ sleep and meet me on 
the train.” 

And thus it was left. Jimmy, after a few words 
of direction from Pete, hurried to the none-too- 


no Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

pleasant task of getting his mother’s permission. 

This permission he was unable to secure. Mrs. 
Quigg dismissed the suggestion as altogether impos- 
sible. 

“ Indeed you’re not going out at that hour to 
get Fred Garson or anybody else out of trouble; I 
don’t like the look of it, they wouldn’t like it at the 
office, either. No siree ! You’re going to bed ! ” 

“ Oh, mother, it’s so exciting.” 

“ Yes, I should think it was. It’d be exciting for 
me sitting here at home, too, and you out running 
a chance of being kidnapped by a gang of Russians. 
No, that’s all there is to it. It’s settled. You 
aren’t going.” 

“ But I’ve made all the arrangements.” 

“ You can unmake them then. You shouldn’t 
make such arrangements without consulting me.” 

“ Supposing it was me, mother, in Fred’s place, 
wouldn’t you be glad to have somebody who knew 
what I know try to help me out? Besides, just 
think, it’ll be daylight an hour or two after we are 
in Westvale. People’ll be up and around pretty 
near as soon as we get there. Nothing could hap- 
pen to us.” 


Jimmy Decides iii 

“ It makes no difference, Jimmy Quigg, youWe not 
going! ” 

Jimmy knew from the way his mother spoke that 
it was useless to argue. 

He said nothing more for some minutes, but he 
did a lot of thinking. His mother mistook his 
silence for sulkiness. She had no doubt of his keen 
disappointment — his crestfallen expression bore 
testimony to that. 

“ Be sensible, Jimmy boy,” she said. “ It’s only 
for you I’m thinking.” 

“ All right,” he answered with an attempt at a 
smile. He rose and kissed her. “ I’m going to 
bed.” 

In the darkness of his room he fought a bitter 
fight. It was hard for him to deceive her, and yet 
he saw no other way. She had said she refused 
permission for his own good. Well, if it was only 
his own good that was involved it might not be so 
wrong for him to go against her wishes. The mat- 
ter at stake was greater than any little personal dis- 
comfort. 

She didn’t understand; that was all there was to 
it. If she knew the circumstances as he did, she’d 


1 12 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

insist on his going, not hold him back. He had 
failed to make the case clear. She was always ready 
to sacrifice herself for others ; she mustn’t expect him 
to do differently when the emergency arose among 
his friends. 

With such reflections as these he tried to stifle 
his conscience and to persuade himself that he was 
justified in the course he had decided to follow. 

The night was long. It seemed to him the hours 
would never pass. He couldn’t go to sleep; he 
would have been afraid to if he could, for he might 
not wake in time ! At last he heard the clock strike 
two and then the half hour. He slid out of bed, 
walked cautiously to the door, and listened. His 
mother was asleep, he knew, by the sound of her 
breathing. He got into his clothes and with his 
shoes in his hand crept toward the door, opened it 
noiselessly, and tiptoed down the stairs. 

Jimmy Quigg had decided to go in search of his 
friend. Though he suffered many pangs of con- 
science at having to disobey his mother, he com- 
forted himself by saying, “ She’ll be glad and proud 
when she sees how it all turns out.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


WESTVALE AT 3 A.M. 


LTHOUGH Jimmy tried to act as though he 



1 . were quite accustomed to starting out from 
home at three o’clock in the morning he was far 
from feeling that he was doing the usual thing. 
Yet he was pleasantly thrilled at the adventure that 
lay before him and eager to arrive at the scene 


of it. 


He met Pete in the ferryhouse. 

“ Your mother let you come, did she ? ” was Pete’s 
greeting. 

“ She didn’t want me to,” Jimmy answered 
evasively. 

They made the trip across the river and got on 
the train without incident. There were few pas- 
sengers aboard, most of them, as Pete explained, 
workers in a factory halfway up the line that put 
on a new shift at four o’clock. Alex was not on 
hand. Jimmy’s heart sank as the time for depar- 
ture drew near and he did not appear. 


1 14 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ What’ll we do if he don’t come ? ” Jimmy asked. 

“ Oh, he’ll come all right, all right,” Pete re- 
plied. “ I seen him to night. He was back to 
the house. He ain’t going to spend the day 
there.” 

He had hardly finished speaking when they heard 
some one coming up the aisle of the car. Nearer 
and nearer sounded the steps, and in a minute a 
tall man passed the boys and sat down several 
seats ahead of them and on the opposite side. 

Pete nudged Jimmy. “ It’s him,” he said in a 
whisper, but Jimmy had already recognized him 
from Pete’s description of the way in which he car- 
ried his head. 

“ Has he ever seen you? ” Jimmy asked. 

“ He may have, though I don’t think he’d recog- 
nize me.” As he spoke Pete opened up a news- 
paper and held it in front of him as though read- 
ing. “ He can’t see through that, anyhow,” he said. 
“ Now, then,” he continued, “ when we get to West- 
vale we got to be careful. Probably not many peo- 
ple’ll be getting off there at this time of night. We 
don’t want to arouse any suspicions. Let him go 
first, and if he seems to be watching us we must 


JVestvale at J A, M. 115 

hurry off in the opposite direction as though we was 
going to a fire. See? ” 

“ I get you.” 

But these precautions were seemingly unnecessary, 
for when, a little more than a quarter of an hour 
later, the train drew in to Westvale, Alex rose, as 
unconcerned about anybody else as could be, de- 
scended to the platform, and stepped briskly up the 
street. 

The boys followed him at a distance of about 
one hundred yards, keeping in the shadows and 
walking softly. Alex did not once look back. 

A half hour^s walk brought them to the outskirts 
of the little town, and they were no longer favored 
with street lights and pavements. It was only with 
difficulty that they could keep their man in sight and 
still remain at a safe distance. The road which 
they were following was through forsaken country, 
great bare patches of land giving place now and then 
to wooded spaces, thick with undergrowth. There 
was hardly a house to be seen. The boys did not 
exchange a word, for it was deathly quiet and they 
were afraid that even the faintest whisper might be 
carried on the still night air to the one ahead. They 


ii6 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

marveled that he did not hear their footsteps occa- 
sionally when some unevenness in the road made 
them tread heavier than usual or when a twig 
snapped under their feet. 

Jimmy could at last stand it no longer. 

“ Gee I Where do you suppose he’s taking us? ” 
he whispered. “ Looks to me like the jumping-off 
place.” 

The only satisfaction he got was a violent shake 
of the head and an emphatic signal to keep quiet. 

The country grew wilder. The road dipped 
down into a ravine and ran along at the bottom 
through a level stretch. The bushes were a bit 
thicker here, the weeds a little taller. Even the 
trees, and they were many, had woven a close net- 
work of foliage and seemed to have a part in this 
debauch of nature. 

Into this black space Alex disappeared. At first 
the boys thought that when they had gone a little 
farther they would see him ahead, emerging as 
from the shadow, but when they, too, came into the 
blackness, they found that the road ended there. 
They stood quiet for a moment in perplexity, per- 


fVestvale at J A. M, 117 

haps a little frightened. Then Pete grabbed 
Jimmy’s arm and pointed over to their right. 

An irregular shape loomed in the distance. At 
first Jimmy could not make out what it was, but 
after a moment the outlines took the form of a 
house. Advancing a few feet they were able to 
distinguish it more clearly. Crumbling bricks, a 
roof that had given way entirely on one side and 
was sagging on the other, broken windows — there 
was nothing about the place to indicate that it had 
seen human habitation for years. They crept 
closer, expecting at any moment to be discovered, 
not knowing where he whom they were following 
had gone. 

Suddenly coming around the corner of the ruin, 
a single beam of light pierced the pitch blackness of 
their surroundings. It came from a window six 
or seven feet above the ground. A tattered shade 
had been drawn across it and had succeeded in ex- 
cluding most of the light, but this one ray was es- 
caping through a hole which had been overlooked. 

“ There he is, and probably Garson too,” Pete 
whispered. 


ii8 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Jimmy was breathing quickly. 

“ What can we do? ” he panted. 

“ Think we’d better go back home and to-mor- 
row come out with your Berrington crowd,” Pete 
advised. “ We’ve got them located now.” 

“ Um — I suppose so,” Jimmy agreed doubt- 
fully. “ Wish I could see in there just once and 
then I’d be sure, especially if I could see Fred.” 

“ Better leave them alone, and come on, I say. 
If we get back to the depot we can most likely get 
an early train to the city. We’ve found them; 
what more do you want?” 

Jimmy had been listening only half-heartedly, his 
eyes vainly searching the darkness. At last he 
spied what he wanted, an old barrel, in a corner up 
next to the house. He went over to it and tested 
it. It seemed strong. He lifted it and placed it 
carefully underneath the window from which the 
light came. 

Pete protested. “ Don’t be a fool,” he said un- 
der his breath. 

But Jimmy had resolved. He mounted the bar- 
rel, which shook uncertainly as it settled itself sol- 
idly into position. 


W estvale at J A. M. 119 

Then Jimmy glued his eye to the opening in 
the shade. 

For a full minute he stood there, while down be- 
low him Pete protested and urged haste. Then the 
crash came ! The barrel, resenting this interference 
with its natural disintegration, gave way without 
warning. Jimmy, endeavoring to save himself, 
made a grab for the windowsill. Missing it, his 
hands struck the window frame a resounding blow, 
and one of the panes of glass fell clatteringly to the 
floor within, while Jimmy, losing his hold altogether, 
crashed down into the barrel wreckage. 

Pete, now thoroughly frightened, came to Jim- 
my’s assistance. “ Hurry up, we must beat it ! ” he 
cried. 

There were sounds within the room. The cur- 
tain was thrust aside and Alex’s face peered out. 
Jimmy made a valiant effort to free himself from 
hoops and staves. At last he got to his feet, but he 
sank down again at once. Sharp pains told him 
that he had wrenched his ankle. 

“ I can’t make it,” he groaned, “ Pve hurt my 
foot.” 

Pete assisted him to a standing position. 


120 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ You’ve got to make it. Lean on me,” and half 
carrying him he started laboriously away from the 
house. If they could only get off a little distance 
they would soon be lost in the darkness. 

But this was not to be. Before they had gone 
many feet a hand grabbed Pete roughly by the collar 
and a voice demanded: “What are you doing 
here? ” 

Without waiting for a reply, the captor dragged 
the boys roughly around to the back of the house, 
up some steps, and into a room lighted with a candle 
and containing a rough table, a chair or two, and a 
dilapidated couch from which sawdust was oozing 
on to the floor. 

Here Alex again demanded: “What do you 
want here? ” He turned them around so that the 
light fell squarely on their faces. As he did so a 
cry came from another part of the room. 

“Jimmy!” It seemed an involuntary sort of 
cry, suddenly cut off. 

“ Oho 1 ” Alex darted to the corner from which 
the voice had come. “ So you know one of them, do 
you, my fine lad! That’s very interesting.” 

Fred got up from the box on which he had been 


Westvale at J A. M. 121 

sitting and walked across the room in the direction 
of the boys, peering at them Intently In the candle’s 
flickering glow. Then he shook his head. “ No,” 
he announced, “ first I thought one of them was 
Jimmy Quigg, looks kind of like him, but It isn’t. 
Never saw either of them before.” 

“ Don’t think you can put anything like that over 
on me,” Alex roared. “ There is something doing 
here and I’ll find out what it is if I have to knock 
all your heads together. I’ve been suspicious of 
you, you little rat,” shaking his fist at Fred. 

“ I haven’t done anything, honest! ” There was 
a note of terror in Fred’s voice. “ How could I 
do anything, shut up here all the time and some- 
body watching over me every second? ” 

“ That’ll do, that’ll do. We’ll find out what you 
did. But first of all we’ll begin with this young 
gentleman here.” He turned to Jimmy. “ What’s 
your idea, prowling around people’s houses at this 
time of night? Tell me now, quick, before I take 
you down to the police.” 

“I — was only passing by and wondered what 
was doing In this old house. I didn’t know anybody 
lived here.” 


122 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

‘‘Passing by! Don’t you know the road ends 
here? Bah! Passing by at three o’clock in the 
morning.” He turned to Pete. “ Have you got 
anything better than that to tell? ” 

Pete refused to talk. 

“ Very well, I’ll give you a little time to get up a 
real story.” Alex laughed unpleasantly. “ I’m 
busy now and can’t be bothered with you, but I’ll 
put you where you can think it all out nice and 
pleasant, so that when you get to court you won’t 
be embarrassed by what the judge asks you. He 
wouldn’t accept any such fairy stories as you are 
handing out now. I’ve got a nice quiet room es- 
pecially suitable for such as you and, when I can, 
I’ll let you out.” 

Alex rose and, ignoring Jimmy’s painful limp, 
shoved the boys ahead of him up a rusty corridor. 
He opened a door at the end of it and thrust them 
into a boxlike compartment, shut the door upon them, 
and locked it. 


CHAPTER XIV 


SUSPICIONS 

I T was nearly ten o’clock the next morning when 
Bertrand reported Jimmy’s absence from the 
office to the manager. 

“ Say, dad, heard anything from Quigg to-day? 
He hasn’t shown up. Queer! Most office boys 
come in on Saturdays, anyhow, so as to get their 
pay!” 

The elder Owens frowned. “ He hasn’t been 
in at all?” 

No.” 

“ I don’t like the look of it. Do you know where 
Quigg lives?” 

“ No,” Bertrand answered. “ But Helen Platt 
does.” 

“ Go get her,” Mr. Owens commanded curtly. 
Bertrand hurried away, returning a moment later 
with Helen. 

“ Do you know where Jimmy Quigg’s home is? ” 


123 


124 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

‘‘ Yes, sir.” 

“ I want you to go and see if Jimmy is there. 
Find out why he hasn’t reported for work if he is. 
If he isn’t home, have his mother come up here 
right away. Do you understand? ” 

“ Yes, sir.” 

After Helen had left, Bertrand turned to his 
father. “ Surely, dad, you don’t think Jimmy is 
mixed up in this robbery?” 

“ Don’t want to discuss it now. Go back to your 
work.” 

About an hour later Bertrand was summoned to 
Mr. Berrington’s office, where he found his father, 
Mr. Berrington, and a pale, agitated little woman 
whom he knew at once to be Mrs. Quigg. 

‘‘ Have you noted anything peculiar about Jimmy 
Quigg lately; that is, the last day or so? ” Mr. Ber- 
rington asked him abruptly. 

“ No, sir, except that I don’t think he’s been quite 
as attentive to his work as he was at first.” 

“ Just what do you mean by ‘ attentive ’ ? Did 
he go away from the office for long periods? ” 

“ No, not that.” Bertrand hesitated. “ Why, 
he made mistakes; his mind seemed to be on some- 


Suspicions 


125 

thing else. When I found out about his friend’s 
being in trouble I thought I understood. The truth 
is I was a little bit hard on the youngster for a botch 
he made of a job I’d given him to do. Then I 
learned that he’d tackled it just after he’d had a con- 
ference with you and was all upset. He never 
said a word to me and, of course, I didn’t know about 
it until later.” 

“ Yes, yes, yes,” Mr. Berrington said impatiently, 
“ but you have nothing specific in mind that would 
indicate that he was planning ” 

‘‘ Don’t you say that ! ” Mrs. Quigg rose and took 
a step or two toward the president. She spoke in 
low tones of repressed passion. “ Don’t you say 
that,” she repeated. “Don’t you even think it! 
My boy is honest. He’ll be back here and prove it 
himself if you’ll only give him time, unless ” — 
there was a catch in her voice — “ unless he’s got 
into trouble. He’s not a thief.” There was de- 
fiance and conviction in her utterance. 

“ I hope not,” Mr. Berrington said in a manner 
plainly intended to be soothing, “ but you must 
admit that your story is a bit unusual.” 

“ I don’t know what her story is,” Bertrand inter- 


126 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

rupted, “ but I don’t believe myself that Jimmy’s a 
thief. He’s been working with me for a good many 
weeks, and while he tried my patience and all that, 
he was always on the level ! ” 

“ What would you say, young man, if I should tell 
you that he had disappeared? ” 

“ I’d like to know more of the facts before ven- 
turing an opinion,” Bertrand replied. 

“ This good woman,” Mr. Berrington explained, 
“ says that last night her son told her he had dis- 
covered where Fred Garson was and asked permis- 
sion to go on some wild escapade at three o’clock in 
the morning for the purpose of clearing up that mys- 
tery. When permission was denied he sneaked 
away, while his mother slept — or so she believes.” 

“That would be like Jimmy; not the sneaking- 
away part, but his desire to help his friend at any 
cost,” Bertrand said. “ Impulsive, generous, fool- 
hardy.” 

Mr. Berrington smiled. “ You are consistent, 
anyway. Of course, I have no desire to be unjust 
to the boy. I know nothing about him, except that 
he is said to be Garson’s best friend here. Garson 


Suspicions 127 

has disappeared with a lot of money, now Quigg dis- 
appears. What am I to think? ” 

“ Is that all that you know about it?” Bertrand 
asked. ‘‘ Just that he wished to follow up some 
evidence he had unearthed that he thought would 
clear Fred? ” 

“ Mrs. Quigg says,” his father replied, “ that they 
wanted to go to Westvale on the three-thirty A.M. 
train.” 

“They! Who besides Jimmy?” 

“ Some other boy whose name Mrs. Quigg 
doesn’t know. It was he who had the facts. Of 
course she isn’t certain that that’s where Jimmy 
went, but indications point that way.” 

“ Have you communicated with anybody in West- 
vale? ” 

Mr. Owens shook his head negatively. “ Not 
yet. This information will be given to the police 
in good time.” 

“ I am almost as sure as Mrs. Quigg that Jimmy’s 
all right,” Bertrand said. “ I wish, sir,” turning to 
Mr. Berrington, “ that you’d let me go out to 
Westvale. I might learn something. I have been 


128 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

so sort of rough with the kid since he flunked so mis- 
erably on his job, that I’d like to do something to 
clear myself with him. It would make me feel a 
bit more decent.” 

“ No objection, as I know of, to your going, but 
I don’t see what particular good can come of it.” 

“ Thank you. It would do me good, anyway. 
And I’m going right now.” 

As he passed Mrs. Quigg he touched her arm 
gently. “ It’ll come out all right,” he whispered, 
“ and a few years from now you’ll look back at this 
thing and laugh and think it was the funniest joke 
ever. You just see.” 

Mrs. Quigg looked at him gratefully through her 
tears. “ But I don’t see why he doesn’t come 
back, unless something dreadful has happened to 
him.” 

While this examination of Mrs. Quigg was pro- 
ceeding the Berrington Boys’ Association was hold- 
ing an excited session. Helen had told Ben Smith 
all that she had gleaned from her conversation with 
Mrs. Quigg. Ben had communicated the informa- 
tion to the boys and a conference had been called in 


Suspicions 


129 


the stock room. Ben was acting as chairman. 

“ You know, fellows,” he began when the boys 
had talked themselves out on the general aspects of 
the situation, “ I think we ought to do something 
about this. This here club was started by Quigg 
and Garson and it was the idea that it would help 
a guy out when he got into any trouble. Well, if 
these two guys aren’t in trouble then I don’t know 
what trouble is. Now are we going to do our part 
or not? ” 

“What can we do?” Frank Lockwood asked. 
“ I’d be for doing something if I could think of any- 
thing.” 

“ Any of you know this here Westvale? ” Ben ig- 
nored Frank’s question. 

No one did. 

“ Well, I don’t know as that makes much dif- 
ference anyhow. I was thinking, here we are,” he 
looked around the circle, counting, “ ten of us, 
and there’s four or five more that would come in on 
a thing like this. What do you say to taking a 
hike out to Westvale and prowling around? Sort 
of a search party. ’Twould be good sport and if 
there was anything to be found there I bet you we 


130 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

could find it. This is Saturday and we’ve got the 
afternoon off.” 

“ If you want to go with the idea of making a 
picnic out of it, all right,” Lockwood agreed. 
“ Nothing would come of it, so far as Jimmy and 
Fred are concerned.” 

“ Pipe down, pipe down,” some one sang out. 
“ Let’s go and make something come of it.” 

“ What do you say to getting Bertrand Owens to 
go along, too? ” Ben asked. 

No objection was raised. 

“ He’s a pretty good scout and he might have 
ideas. You know you got to have ideas in this de- 
tective business,” Ben explained. ^‘Well, then,” 
he continued, “ it’s settled we go this afternoon. 
I’ll get the dope on the trains and all that sort of 
thing. We got to put this club on the map and 
we’ll sure do it if we have a hand in explaining this 
great mystery,” he ended pompously. 

A few minutes later he explained the plan to 
Bertrand. 

“Bully!” Bertrand ejaculated. “That just fits 
in with my arrangements. I’m going to see the po- 
lice in Westvale right now and get them on the job. 


Suspicions 


131 

and then I’ll meet you this afternoon and we’ll 
see what we can do, provided Westvale’s cops 
haven’t cleared the thing all up before you fellows 
get out there.” 

“ It would be too bad if they had,” Ben observed. 
Bertrand greeted his remark with a laugh. 
“ Looks to me as though you were doing it more 
for the fun of the chase then for clearing Jimmy.” 

Ben flushed. “ No, I’m not,” he protested. 
“ Still I don’t mind saying I’m anticipating it. Any- 
how, I guess the cops won’t do anything. It’ll be 
up to us,” he finished dryly. 


CHAPTER XV 

IN THE OLD CELLAR 

M eanwhile jimmy Quigg endured mental 
torture of the worst kind as he thought 
how worried his mother would be at his absence. 
He had plenty of time to consider the situation too, 
for Alex left him undisturbed for half a day in 
the dark room into which he had thrust him, along 
with Pete. 

He wondered if it was going to turn out to be 
the profitless expedition his mother had said it would 
be when she had objected to his going. Even if it 
did, he wouldn’t be sorry, barring his regret at the 
deception of his mother, that he had come. He 
would have the satisfaction of knowing that he had 
tried to help Fred. Besides he loved adventure, 
and the prospect was that he would have his full 
share of it before he was through! He was not 
frightened at the outlook, nor was Pete. They 


132 


In the Old Cellar 


133 


were both confident that, given a chance, they could 
escape from the net in which they now seemed en- 
tangled. Locked up in a windowless room, no 
amount of ingenuity could help them, but once they 
were taken from their prison, they were sure they 
could find some avenue of escape. 

The pain in Jimmy’s ankle grew less and it was 
not long before he could walk up and down in his 
tiny cell without great discomfort. There was 
ever with him the thought that he must communi- 
cate with his mother. It was on the anxiety which 
he knew she must be feeling that his mind chiefly 
dwelt, rather than on his own predicament. 

After what seemed an interminable period, they 
heard the lock turn. The door was flung open and 
the light rushed in, almost blinding them. 

Alex stood there. 

“ Come on out,” he said. “ I’ve given you time 
enough now to think it all over.” They followed 
him up the hall and into the room where they had 
been the night before. There they found Fred eat- 
ing some bread and canned fish. 

“ If you want lunch, there you are,” Alex pointed 
to the remains of a loaf of bread on the table and 


134 


Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 


to some sardines uninvitingly displayed In a tin can. 

“ I’m not hungry,” Jimmy answered. 

“ Better eat while you’ve got the chance,” Alex 
advised. 

Jimmy was not to be tempted, but Pete helped 
himself generously to the food. 

Alex turned to Jimmy. “ If you don’t want to 
eat you can talk. Are you ready to tell me what 
you were doing around this place? ” 

“ You saw what I was doing, didn’t you? Look- 
ing In.” 

“ I’d advise you, young man, to keep civil.” 
There was a menacing note In Alex’s voice. 

“ Aw, what’s the use?” Pete Interrupted. “ He 
knows what we were here for. We was looking 
for Fred Garson; we’re pals of his. What’s the 
Idea of making so many words about something that 
ain’t no secret? We just had the bad luck to get 
caught before we could get away and spoil your little 
game.” 

“ Thank you,” Alex said. “ You’ve saved me 
a lot of trouble and I’ll be just as frank with you. 
As I was fortunate enough to catch you I’ll keep 
you — for a while, anyway.” 


In the Old Cellar 


135 

“That ain’t no news to us,” Pete observed; 
“ it wouldn’t be safe for you not to keep us.” 

“We now understand each other perfectly. I 
trust there will be no hard feelings if I am forced to 
confine you rather closely. It may not be for long, 
I hope it won’t be, but until I can get several things 
attended to, I shall have to remain here, with you 
as my guests.” 

Alex walked to the windows. “ You will ob- 
serve,” he said, “ that these two windows open to 
the north. I command from my workshop below a 
good view of the patch of ground upon which they 
look out. I would not advise any one, therefore, to 
try to escape by way of the windows. The door,” 
he walked to it, opened it, put the key on the outside, 
“ I will lock. The hall door is locked and the key is 
in my pocket. I shall expect to see you later.” 
He nodded and shut the door. They heard the key 
turn and then his steps down the outside stairs. 

Fred broke the silence that followed his de- 
parture. 

“ What in blazes made you do it, Quigg? I 
don’t get the idea at all. I don’t see how you found 
us anyway.” 


136 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Finding was easy enough,” Pete said, “ a 
whole lot easier’n it’ll be getting away from 
you.” 

But Fred’s eyes were on Jimmy. “ What did you 
do it for? ” he repeated. 

“ Oh, for the fun of the thing,” Jimmy replied, 
adding casually, “ and because I knew you didn’t 
steal the bonds.” 

“What makes you think I didn’t steal ’em?” 
Fred’s expressionless tone gave not the slightest hint 
of his emotion. 

“ I just simply knew, that’s all.” Jimmy’s tone 
was equally expressionless. 

Fred said nothing, but turned his back and walked 
to the window. 

“ What gets me,” Pete again thrust himself for- 
ward, “is, how we’re going to get away? Gee! 
ril bet my boss had a few things to say about me 
this morning.” 

“ And mine, too,” Jimmy added, little realizing 
the full significance of his comment. 

“ Is it so,” Jimmy asked of Fred, “ that he’s 
down where he could see us if we climbed out of 
these windows? ” 


In the Old Cellar 


137 

“ Yes, it’s no use,” Fred said discouragingly, 
“ you can’t get away from him.” 

“Don’t you believe it! We’ll get away. Just 
give us time and if one of us can escape and alarm 
the neighborhood there’ll be something doing. 
Only I think we’ll have to go a mile or two before 
we find any neighborhood to alarm.” 

Pete walked up and tried the handle of the inside 
door. “ It’s locked all right, all right,” he said. 
“Where’s it go to?” 

“ Into the hall.” 

“Is there an outside door there?” 

“ Not any more. There used to be, but that part 
of the house is all in ruins now and you can’t get 
through. But there’s a stairway leading down into 
the cellar and there’s an outside cellar door on the 
other side of the house.” 

Pete studied the hall door. “ It’s pretty weak,” 
he said. “ If it weren’t for the racket it would 
make, you could pull it right away from the frame, 
lock and all, but that would arouse our friend Alex, 
if he’s really around.” 

“ He’s around all right,” Fred assured him, “ and 
will be here at the least noise.” 


138 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Pete dug into his pocket. “ Don’t suppose 
there’s a chance in the world my key’ll fit, but — — ” 
He inserted the key as he spoke and turned it half- 
way around. “ Almost, boys,” he said excitedly. 
He withdrew the key, examined it, and inserted it 
again, testing the action of the lock carefully. 

“ Got a file?” he asked quickly. “ Got a knife 
with a file blade? ” 

Jimmy produced one. 

Pete carefully filed the key for a moment and then 
tried it once more. The lock turned. 

Pete locked the door, withdrew the key, and put 
it in his pocket. “ Don’t intend to run any chances. 
We’ll keep locked up until we get our plans made. 
Now, then, what’s to be done? ” 

“ Why not open the door and all of us get out? ” 
Fred asked. 

“ I don’t know . . Pete hesitated. “ It seems 
to me it might be better for just one to go. One 
wouldn’t be likely to make so much noise as three. 
What do you say, Jimmy? ” 

“ I think so, too, only it’ll be hard for those that 
are left if Alex comes back before help arrives.” 

“ Alex won’t be back,” Fred reassured him, “ for 


In the Old Cellar 


139 

a couple of hours, not unless something disturbs him. 
He always stays that long in the afternoon.” 

“ That would give one of us plenty of time,” Pete 
spoke quickly, “ to bring help. I think it’s up to 
you, Jimmy Quigg.” 

“ I’m ready to go,” Jimmy agreed. “ What’s 
the quickest way to town? ” 

Fred gave him a few simple directions as to how 
to reach the more thickly settled sections of West- 
vale. Then Pete unlocked the door and Jimmy 
stepped into the hall. With a final silent salute to 
his friends he made his way cautiously toward the 
stairway at the other end and disappeared. 

He made the descent successfully, not even a 
board creaking under his weight. At the foot of 
the stairs he paused, in doubt as to which way to go. 
There were several patches of gray light, any one of 
which might have been the opening that had been 
described to him. Fred had said the exit was on the 
south side. But which was the south? 

The cellar was dark, only a little light filtering in 
through what had once been windows, but which 
were now partially obstructed by fallen masonry on 
the inside or overgrown with vines and weeds on the 


140 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

outside. The cellar itself was filled with wreckage 
— old boxes, papers, piles of earth, and plaster and 
bricks, the accumulation of years of disintegration. 

Jimmy, finally regaining his sense of direction, 
made for the grayish splotch of light which he had 
decided must mark the exit he was seeking. 

After stumbling along for fifteen or twenty feet 
over the rough floor and marveling that he did not 
noisily upset something, to his undoing, he stopped 
short with the distinct feeling that he was not alone. 
His eyes searched the darkness, but he could see 
nothing, and he had about decided that it was only 
imaginatiou when he heard something. This time 
there was no doubt of it. It sounded like the hum 
of a machine, reminding him of his mother’s sewing 
machine when she was running it very fast. It 
stopped. A man spoke and Alex replied. 

Jimmy was afraid to move, fearing that the next 
step might bring him within range of the vision of 
those he most desired to avoid. Realizing, how- 
ever, that delay was fatal, he moved on. A few 
feet farther and he rounded a great mound of de- 
bris only to come upon an open space, at the other 
end of which, working under carefully shaded lights, 


In the Old Cellar 


141 

were Alex and another man. He stepped back be- 
hind the pile of rubbish and waited. Apparently 
they had not seen or heard him. He stuck his 
head cautiously forward and fastened his eyes upon 
the men at their work. After a few moments there 
dawned upon him the full realization of what he was 
witnessing. At first he could hardly believe that 
his interpretation of the scene was the right one, but 
the snatches of conversation which reached his ears 
removed all doubt of that. 


CHAPTER XVI 


THE ESCAPE 

J IMMY figured that there were about twenty feet 
between him and escape. A short stretch of 
shadow, a bright spot where the light fell through 
the door from the room where Alex and his com- 
panion were working, another patch of darkness fad- 
ing off into grayness as it approached the opening 
that was to bring freedom. It was all perfectly 
easy except for the few steps that he must take into 
the light. There was the chance that he might be 
discovered then and yet there was no way in which 
he could avoid crossing it. When he had made quite 
certain of that, he crept forward. He simply must 
get out now. What he had seen of the operations 
of the two men made it imperative I 

But he was too cautious. Hugging the wall, in 
order that he might keep out of the dreaded bril- 
liancy from the doorway as long as possible, his eyes 
ahead rather than on his immediate surroundings, 
142 


The Escape 


143 


his foot caught in a jagged bit of rock that pro- 
truded from the crumbling foundation. He stum- 
bled, made a valiant effort to regain his equilibrium, 
failed, and sprawled full length right in the center 
of the light spot he had been seeking to avoid. 

There was a muffled cry from the other room. 

“ What’s that? ” Alex rushed in followed by his 
assistant. 

By this time Jimmy was on his feet lurching to- 
ward the opening. 

‘‘ You ! ” Alex exclaimed. “ How the devil’d 
you get here?” He lunged for Jimmy’s collar, 
missed it by a fraction of an inch, cursed, and made 
savagely for the boy who was nearing the exit, a 
half caved-in doorway from which three or four 
steps led up and out. Jimmy reached the steps, took 
two of them at a bound, and then the top one. Alex 
was so close upon him that he could hear his breath- 
ing. He was frightened; it seemed certain that he 
would be caught, but 

The Berrington Boys’ Association had come to 
Westvale, had seen the town, but, unlike Caesar, had 
not conquered it. The enemy was still at large. 
For the first few hours the boys had enjoyed stroll- 


144 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

ing around the little suburb, imagining that every 
unexplored street would offer a clue, that every sus- 
picious-looking individual was an accomplice. But 
a few hours had sufficed to quench their enthusiasm 
for the search. Some of the boys realized, for the 
first time, that it was a hopeless errand on which they 
had set out. Others admitted that they had never 
had any expectation of success, but that they had 
planned the expedition simply for the fun of the 
thing. 

“ It’s been a good hike,” Lockwood observed, 
“ and that’s what we wanted.” 

“ Well, I’m kind of disappointed,” Ben Smith ad- 
mitted, “ not to have had anything exciting happen. 
I thought even if we didn’t see anything of Quigg 
and the others we might get a false lead or two that 
it would be fun following up.” 

“ Rven the police haven’t any clues,” Bertrand re- 
marked. “ The cop I talked to at the station house 
said they’d run down everything and were just as 
much in the dark as ever, and that they were be- 
ginning to think the whole story was bunk.” 

“ If we had the time I’ll bet we could solve it,” 
a fourth member of the party volunteered; “we’d 


The Escape 


145 


have to search most every house, but we’d get there.” 

“ Yes,” Ben sneered, “ but what do you s’pose the 
crooks would be doing while you was searching? 
They’d soon get wind of that business and light out. 
I’ve had enough ! I move we go home.” 

“ Might as well,” Bertrand agreed, “ but I feel as 
if it were leaving old Jimmy in the lurch somehow.” 

They were strolling, as they talked, up a country 
road that wound and twisted, now through bare flat 
lands, now through wooded areas. It was just the 
sort of road that would tempt one for an afternoon’s 
walk, away from evidences of civilization, cool, fra- 
grant, inviting when the sun was still high, but a 
far different road at night. Then it was dark and 
sinister — as Pete and Jimmy could have told them. 

Even as they were bewailing the futility of their 
errand the members of the Berrington Boys’ Asso- 
ciation were coming nearer and nearer to the mo- 
ment when they could serve, if they would but see 
the opportunity and grasp it. An open stretch of 
ground underneath low-branching trees was too much 
of a temptation for their tired bodies. Almost as 
one they threw themselves down and stretched full 
length in the inviting shade. 


146 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Gee, look at the ruin ! ” Lockwood drawled, nod- 
ding lazily toward the structure that had once 
housed the proud family of a general of the Revo- 
lution. 

The others turned indifferent eyes in the direction 
which he indicated. 

“ ’Twould be a good scene for a murder,” Ben 
Smith grunted. “ Maybe right here our man is 
hiding, who knows? I’ll say we ought to investi- 
gate.” 

“ Investigate nothing,” Lockwood replied. “ If 
I can get back to the depot I’ll think I’m lucky. 
Must have walked twenty miles! Got blisters on 
my feet’s big as dollars.” 

“ Don’t believe anybody could live in there very 
long, anyhow. A brick falls most every minute, I 
should think, judging by the piles of ’em all around,” 
another added. “ Must have been some castle 
long about Noah’s time.” 

Thus the conversation ran for a quarter of an 
hour while the boys rested. Outside, this calm tran- 
quillity; inside, a fight for life. 


When Jimmy took that last step and shot out 


The Escape 


147 


free of the house and paused for just the fraction of 
a second, not knowing which way to turn, his eyes lit 
upon the figures underneath the trees. He blinked, 
looked again, and then, as he heard Alex coming up 
after him, he ran in the direction of the boys; but 
in that pause Alex had almost caught up with him. 
Jimmy, feeling his fingers on his coat, let out a wild 
yell, thinking that he had been captured and in- 
tending that whoever it was down there in the shade 
should know of his presence. The yell had the ef- 
fect of a thunderclap from a clear sky. Thirteen 
young men, none of whom had happened to be look- 
ing in the direction of the house at that particular 
moment, sprang up. Jimmy saw them, he recog- 
nized Bertrand and Ben Smith, he knew that, in 
some miraculous and altogether inexplicable way, 
help had come. 

“Oh, you QuiggI ” Ben Smith called out, and 
then there were several boys running quickly toward 
him. Alex, after one startled look at the army of 
newcomers, turned and fled to the cellar. 

Jimmy was breathless when he came up to the 
group of his friends. 

“ I don’t know how you came here or — or any- 


148 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

thing about it,” he panted. “ And I want to know, 
’cause if you hadn’t happened to be around I guess I 
would have seen my finish. But first, we must get 
them locked up. Do you know what they’re doing 
in there? Planning to blow up some rich man’s 
home. I saw them working and I heard them talk. 
They’re making bombs ! Dozens of them I ” 

“Garson?” 

“ Garson is in there, a prisoner, like I was, but 
I’ll tell you all about it later. Now, then, how are 
we going to get the police here before they escape? ” 
Jimmy turned to Bertrand as one who, because of 
his superior years, should suggest the plan. 

Bertrand thought a moment. 

“ There are fourteen of us here,” he said at length. 
“ Take one away, that would be thirteen. We’ve 
got to surround the place while the other one runs 
for the cops. “ Here, you kid,” and he grasped 
one of the boys by the arm, “ can you run? ” 

“ Bet your life.” 

“ Well, you leg it back to town just as fast as you 
can, and see that you lose no time in getting here 
with Westvale’s entire police force. Be off I ” He 



Jimmy was breathless when he came up to the group of his 
friends 



The Escape 149 

gave the youngster a shove and the boy was soon lost 
to sight up the road. 

“ WeVe got to watch out,” Jimmy warned, “ or 
these guys here will make a get-away.” 

“ Yes, quick, scatter right around the house,” 
Bertrand commanded. “ And if any one of you sees 
anything doing or has the slightest suspicion, holler 
like blazes! Anybody afraid? ” 

“ Not afraid exactly,” Ben Smith said, “ but I was 
looking for something exciting. Humph! Well, I 
got my wish.” 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE BOYS ON GUARD 

T T was a silent guard that stationed itself around 
^ the ruined house. The boys were too excited 
to talk. Their eyes were strained to catch every 
movement, they jumped at the rustling of twigs and 
the singing of the wind through the long grass. 
Every shadow held a possible lurking figure, around 
every corner there was mystery. 

Some of the boys, had the truth been told, were 
a bit frightened, but they successfully concealed their 
fears and put on a brave front. Yet one or two of 
the older lads realized that they would be powerless 
to prevent the escape of a desperate criminal should 
he make the effort. 

When, after a few moments, nothing happened, 
the more timorous grew bolder, while those who had 
longed for an engagement with the enemy became 
suspicious of the quiet. The silence seemed omi- 
nous. What was going on within those crumbling 


The Boys on Guard 15 1 

walls? Surely something must be, for it was im- 
possible to believe that a man such as the boys knew 
was hidden there would submit to capture without 
a fight. 

On the other hand, could he get away without giv- 
ing some sign? 

“ Gee, I wish something would happen,” Lock- 
wood said to Ben who stood near him. “ This is 
awful, waiting here for hours with your eyes glued 
on that old shack.” 

“ Hours nothing,” Ben retorted, consulting his 
watch. “ Bob’s been gone only twenty minutes.” 

“ Seems like ten times twenty to me,” Lockwood 
replied, and the same sentiment was shared by the 
thirteen others. 

“ Each minute is a week and ten days long,” one 
of the boys commented dryly, his eyes never rov- 
ing from the area for which he was responsible, but 
his ears keenly alert for sounds up the road in 
back of him. 

But the sounds, when they came, did not come 
from “ up the road.” Suddenly, without warning, 
a gunshot broke the country silence followed by a 
dull explosion in front of the ruins and a shower of 


152 Jimmy Quigg, Ofjice Boy 

bricks and dirt. The boys on the side where the 
disturbance began ran from their posts and joined 
their ranks to those of the guard on the south. 
They were now really frightened, and even the 
leaders, Bertrand and Ben, advised retreat to a safe 
distance. 

‘‘ They must have cannon in there,” one of the 
younger members of the party said. “ I’m not go- 
ing to stay here and have ’em turn broadsides like 
that on me.” 

Another shot and whatever last lingering doubt 
the more adventuresome among them may have had 
as to the wisdom of forsaking their self-imposed 
tasks vanished. They fled a quarter of a mile up 
the road. 

“ Think this is far enough? ” Ben panted. 

“ Sure, you granny,” Lockwood replied, “ unless 
they decide to follow us.” 

Such was far from the intention of Alex and his 
companion. They had tried the old trick of men at 
bay and it had succeeded far better than they had 
hoped. Shots had been fired into the air and a small 
bomb exploded among the ruins with the sole idea 
of fixing the attention of the boys upon one side of 


The Boys on Guard 


IS3 

the house, thus opening up an avenue for escape on 
the other side. Alex had so planned it that the side 
which would be free of boys and of boys’ surveillance 
was toward the woods. 

It was Bertrand who discovered how the incident 
was working out. While he had sought safety with 
the others he still kept at a point where the house 
and its surroundings were within view. His watch- 
fulness was rewarded. 

“There they go, boys; see them? Look! 
Quick! ” 

Lockwood, Ben and the others who had heard 
Bertrand’s remark rushed to him and followed his 
pointing finger. 

“ Down there between the house and the trees. 
They’re making for the woods. What do you say, 
shall we go after them? ” 

“ Not on your life,” Lockwood replied. “ I’ve 
had all the gun play for this afternoon I want. • 
I’m not exactly used to being shot at.” 

“ I don’t think they were shooting at us. They 
were just making that confusion to scare us off so 
they could sneak away. But I don’t know as we’d 
better follow them,” Bertrand concluded, “ though 


154 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

I hate to see them just walking right away from us 
like this.” 

“ But Garson and Pete aren’t there,” Jimmy 
said. 

“ That’s so,” Bertrand agreed. “ They must 
have left them behind. Well, we can go up to the 
house and see about that anyhow.” 

“ I’m willing to wait a while to do even that,” 
Ben Smith confessed. “ I’d like to know what’s do- 
ing up there and all that, but better be safe than 
sorry, I say.” 

“Oh, you Smitty! I thought you was a lion 
slayer and all that,” some one called out, and there 
was a general laugh at Ben’s expense. 

“ I thought I was, too,” Ben admitted sheepishly, 
“ ’til I heard them shots.” 

Considerably less than an hour after the messen- 
ger’s departure, an automobile was heard coming 
up the road and a minute later it appeared in a cloud 
of dust around the bend. 

“ Here they come ! Here they come ! ” one lad 
joyfully cried out. “ Three cheers ! Three cheers 
for the four cops and the ‘ Tin Lizzie ’ and Bob.” 


The Boys on Guard 155 

The tension broke, the cheers were given, and 
then all was hurry and confusion. 

Bertrand tried to take command of the situation. 
“ Fall back, boys ! Let me talk to the officers.” 

The boys obeyed — In part. They fell back, but 
they all talked at once. It was only when one of 
the bluecoats, the biggest and burliest of the group, 
demanded gruffly that they “ Shut up and allow this 
fellow to do the talking,” Indicating Bertrand, that 
they gave the slightest heed. 

Bertrand quickly reviewed the events of the last 
half hour. “ And they’ve got away and are hiding 
down in the woods somewhere,” he concluded, “ all 
except the two boys. We think they’re still up in 
the house.” 

He had hardly finished when three of the police- 
men started on a run for the woods, the fourth head- 
ing for the house. The boys straggled along after 
him, casting skeptical glances toward the woods. 

“ You stay here,” the policeman said, when they 
came up to the house, “ and I’ll go inside and see 
what I can see.” 

The boys were very glad to follow his Instructions. 


1^6 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Tliey had little desire to go within, even in the com- 
pany of so robust a defender. 

A quarter of an hour passed. The policeman re- 
turned. “The others have not come back?” he 
asked. 

Bertrand shook his head. “ Did you find Fred 
and Pete inside? ” 

“ I don’t know whether I found Fred and Pete, 
or not,” the officer answered. “ Pve got two kids. 
They was locked up in a room. I think I’ll keep 
’em In here.” 

“ Do you suppose the cops’ll land the villains? ” 
Ben asked eagerly. 

“ The police,” the man answered severely, “ al- 
ways get the criminal. The police, young man; 
don’t call ’em cops. Maybe we won’t get ’em to- 
day, but to-morrow or the next day, it makes no 
special difference which. Here comes one of our 
men now.” He pushed past the boys to the ap- 
proaching officer. 

“ See anything of them? ” the first one asked. 

“No, not a sign; looks as if they’d made good 
their get-away, but we want to stay here and scour 
the place.” 


The Boys on Guard 


157 


What about the boys I found inside? ” 

“ Take ’em down to the station house and report 
the whole affair. WeVe got to have some more 
help up here. We can’t let these birds slip through 
our fingers. Have four additional men sent up at 
once. I’m going back to the woods. You report 
there as soon as you can.” He nodded and hurried 
off. 

Bertrand stepped up to the policeman who re- 
mained. “ Must you really take Fred to the sta- 
tion? Can’t he come home with me? I’ll be re- 
sponsible for him.” 

“ You heard my orders,” the man replied. 

“ I’m going down with you, then. I’m represent- 
ing the company that’s involved in this matter. The 
police sergeant knows all about it and I think he’ll 
fix it up for me.” 

The policeman went into the house, returning a 
moment later with Fred and Pete. 

There was a chorus of greetings for Fred: 
“ Hello, old man; ” “ Glad to see you; ” “ Oh, you 
Garson! ” “ ’Lo, you Freddie! ” 

Similar words of welcome were called out to 
Pete, who was known to several. 


158 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

The two lads were surrounded by their friends, 
eager for all the news at once. The policeman al- 
lowed them to talk for a few minutes and then told 
them they would have to start for the town. 

The boys perceived a great change in Garson and 
they were unable to understand it. He had always 
been happiest when attracting most attention, he had 
rejoiced in banter. Now he barely acknowledged 
their salutations, he was surly and scornful. He re- 
plied to questions in monosyllables, and finally, when 
they pressed him for information, he broke out hotly 
with: “Oh, leave me alone, can’t you?” 

“ Whatever’s got into Garson, anyhow?” Ben 
asked, coming abreast of Jimmy. 

“ He’ll come around all right after a time,” 
Jimmy replied. “ He’s been through a lot and 
doesn’t know just where he stands.” 

“Yes,” Ben agreed, “but so have you been 
through a lot and you can still talk decent to a 
fellow.” 

“ It’s different with me. It wasn’t my folks that 
got mixed up in this thing. While Alex isn’t ex- 
actly Fred’s folks, he’s about as near it as anybody 
Fred ever had. I wouldn’t want a lot of guys hang- 


The Boys on Guard 159 

ing around me with a million questions if I’d been 
up against it the way he has.” 

“ I suppose so,” Ben agreed, though not whole- 
heartedly. 

In a few moments they arrived at the station house 
where it was, as Bertrand had thought it would be, 
an easy matter to arrange for Fred’s release. A 
word from the sergeant over the telephone to Mr. 
Berrington, another to Fred, and the deed was 
done. 

“ May be a little irregular,” the police officer 
said, “ but It’s perfectly safe; I can see that.” 


It was six o’clock when the boys got back to 
the city. Just after the ferryboat landed and be- 
fore they separated to go In different directions to- 
ward their homes, Jimmy thanked them for what 
they had done. 

“ It was great,” he said, “ and we won’t forget 
It, Fred and I, and Pete, too.” 

“ That bomb business is all that’s worrying me 
now. That’s still a pretty serious proposition,” 
Bertrand remarked. “ The bombing may be put 


i6o Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

through even yet, you know. We haven’t landed 
Alex.” 

Jimmy sobered. “ I’d forgotten that for the mo- 
ment,” he confessed. “ But didn’t they leave all 
their junk behind?” he asked. 

Bertrand shook his head. “ There wasn’t a sign 
of anything. It wouldn’t seem as though they 
could have taken much with them. I suppose most 
likely they hid it, or destroyed it. But if they’ve 
got the will to do a thing like that and are at large 
they’ll find a way to do it even if they have to 
begin all over again.” 

“ The police will simply have to catch ’em then, 
that’s all. They’ll simply have to,” Jimmy said. 
‘‘ Gee, I wish we might have done it.” 

They fell into silence for several blocks, except 
for the occasional “ good nights ” that were called 
out as they came to the parting of the ways. At last 
only three remained together — Jimmy, Bertrand, 
and Fred. 

“ I’ve got to hurry up and get home,” Jimmy said. 
“ I’ll just bet mother’s been worrying about me.” 

“ She sure has,” Bertrand agreed. “ I saw her 
and I know.” 


The Boys on Guard i6i 

Jimmy flushed. His conscience had troubled him 
a lot on that score. 

There was a moment of constraint, and then Fred 
somewhat doggedly asked: “What about me? 
Can I go where I please? ” 

Jimmy glanced at Bertrand. He did not know 
just how seriously the police sergeant’s remark that 
he would hold Bertrand responsible for Garson was 
to be taken. 

“ I’d like Fred to stay with me over Sunday,” 
Jimmy said. “ I don’t suppose Mr. Berrington will 
want to see us until Monday.” 

“ That’s the way ’twas left when we phoned from 
the station house. The first thing Monday we’ll 
have our session in his office.” Bertrand looked 
troubled, and Jimmy noted that he had not replied 
to his question. 

“ Perhaps you’d like Fred to go with you,” Jimmy 
suggested. 

Fred broke in impatiently: “Oh, what’s the 
idea? Do you think I’m going to slip away from 
you?” Although he made a brave effort at his 
old-time defiance there was behind it all something 
undeniably pathetic. 


1 62 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Bertrand clapped him on the shoulder. “ Buck 
up, old man! Of course you can spend the week- 
end with Quigg, if you like. Why shouldn’t you? 
And I’ll see you both Monday morning. Here’s 
my corner — so long,” and Bertrand was off, ap- 
preciating that his father and Mr. Berrington might 
criticize him for his leniency, but knowing full well 
that he had done the right thing. “ The poor lit- 
tle beggar’d be mighty uncomfortable if he had to 
stick around with me,” he muttered to himself. 

“ Now for home,” Jimmy said as he and Fred 
swung off up the street. 

Your home,” Fred said significantly. 


CHAPTER XVIII 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 

W HILE he had thought that his mother would 
be worried at his long absence and hurt at 
his deception of her, Jimmy had really had little 
idea of the mental torture she had suffered in the 
hours that he had been away. She had never for 
a moment, of course, questioned his honesty, but as 
the day passed and he did not return she had become 
more and more certain that he had met with foul 
play. 

When Jimmy flung open the hall door, singing out, 
“ Hello, mother! ” and caught sight of her as she 
sat at the front window, the full realization of his 
thoughtlessness was borne in upon him. 

Mrs. Quigg rose unsteadily and took a step for- 
ward. Jimmy ran to her, thoroughly frightened 
at her white, drawn features. 

“ It’s all right, mother,” he said, though a sud- 
163 


164 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

den pain in his throat almost cut off the words. 
“ It’s turned out just as I said it would. We got 
Fred — see?” And he pointed toward Garson 
who stood hesitatingly in the background. 

Mrs. Quigg had kept up bravely during her long 
night and day of agony, but now she sank down 
weakly into a chair and sobbed. Jimmy dropped to 
his knees beside her. “ Why, what’s the matter, 
mother? ” he asked. “ Now that I am back, why 
do you cry? ” 

“ Oh, Jimmy, I have been so worried,” Mrs. 
Quigg made an effort to control herself. “ Why 
did you do it and against my wishes, too? I didn’t 
think you’d go that way.” 

“ I had to, mother, it was my duty. ... I hope 
you won’t feel so bad when I tell you how it all 
turned out. I’m sorry you were worried. I didn’t 
want you to be; you know that, don’t you? ” 

“ Yes, I suppose so, but another time you mustn’t 
be so thoughtless. However, there won’t be another 
time, Jimmy Quigg; don’t you forget it.” There 
was a partial return of Mrs. Quigg’s accustomed 
snap. “ Why, besides being worried to death I had 
to go up to the office and tell about you. They 


Questions and Answers 


165 

thought you had something to do with the robbery/’ 

“ Yes, I know, Bertrand told me. He didn’t tell 
me, though, that you’d been up there. Suppose he 
thought that would get me excited.” 

“ Bertrand told you? When did you see him? ” 

“ Oh, that’s all part of the story, and when I 
tell it all to you I know you’ll forgive me and not 
be sorry I went. It had pretty good results.” He 
motioned to Garson. “ Fred, come here.” 

Fred advanced from the shadow of the doorway. 

“ Mother, this is Fred Garson. I brought him 
to stay with us over Sunday. You don’t mind, do 
you?” 

It must be admitted that Mrs. Quigg at first was 
inclined to feel a certain antipathy toward Fred as 
the one who was responsible for all the trouble, but 
there was such an unhappy look in his eyes that her 
mother heart went out to him almost as soon as the 
boy stepped forward. 

“ How do you do, Fred? ” she said. “ Of course 
you may stay here, if you and Jimmy desire it.” 
Then relenting a bit, “I — I shall be glad to have 
you.” 

At the supper table, Jimmy rehearsed the events 


i66 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

since his early-morning departure, while Mrs. Quigg 
listened with wide-eyed amazement. 

“ And they didn’t catch him, after all? Oh, what 
a pity! ” she observed, as Jimmy finished his story 
with an account of Alex’s escape. 

“ No, he isn’t caught yet, but he will be; we’ll get 
him soon.” 

Mrs. Quigg’s eyes snapped. We^ll nothing,” 
she said. “ You just leave yourself out of any 
further doings. They^ll get him, maybe. You^ll 
have nothing to do with it.” 

Even Fred laughed at Mrs. Quigg’s vehemence. 

“ All right, mother. I’m through,” Jimmy agreed. 

“ You needn’t tell me that,” Mrs. Quigg an- 
swered. “ I know it.” 

Fred had as yet told Jimmy nothing of the par- 
ticulars of the robbery, and his silence began to 
puzzle his friend. On Sunday afternoon, when the 
boys were out for a walk, Jimmy gave him several 
excellent opportunities, but Fred ignored them. 
At last Jimmy said: 

“ Are you ever going to tell me exactly what hap- 
pened the day you disappeared? ” 


Questions and Answers 167 

“ I suppose I’ll have to,” Fred replied curtly. 

“ Should think you’d want to. Of course I know 
you didn’t have anything to do with the stealing of 
the stuff yourself, but I would like to know what 
was doing.” 

“ Can’t you wait until to-morrow? I’ll have to 
tell it all then and once is plenty.” 

Jimmy turned away, hurt at Fred’s attitude. He 
had little idea of his companion’s mental turmoil. 
It seemed to Fred almost as though the bottom had 
dropped out of the universe. The ideals of the 
man whom he had come to regard in the light of a 
father were apparently not ideals at all in the eyes 
of those who knew and counted; they stood for dis- 
honor and crime and wreckage. Yet it was hard 
to admit this. Alex was all that he had ever had 
to tie to. It was difficult to sever the connection that 
held him to the old associations, to the old ways 
of thinking. He saw, however, that he must do 
it — that he must renounce his people ; that there 
was no other solution. He chose it not from any 
sudden burst of knowledge that he had been on the 
wrong side of the equation, but rather because he 
realized that it was the only way he could save him- 


i68 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

self, and to look out for one’s self had always been 
the first rule in the game, even in Alex’s kind of 
game. 

Promptly at nine o’clock the next morning, Jimmy 
and Fred and Bertrand met at Mr. Berrington’s 
door. 

“ He wants us to come right in,” Bertrand said. 
“ They’re waiting for us.” 

“ Good morning, young gentlemen,” Mr. Berring- 
ton said not unkindly as the trio came in. “ I have 
been hearing something of your experiences 
through Mr. Owens, but there are several important 
omissions which I should like you to supply. You 
are Fred Garson, I suppose?” Mr. Berrington 
gave the boy a shrewd, quick glance. 

“ Yes.” 

“ While we know of your rescue and the subse- 
quent details of the situation, information is lack- 
ing as to why you disappeared and as to what hap- 
pened to the money you had with you when you 
left.” Mr. Berrington paused. 

“ Alex got it.” The boy spoke the words almost 
as though making a confession of personal guilt. 


Questions and Answers 169 

“Alex! Who is he? The anarchist bomb 
maker you were telling me about?” turning to Ber- 
trand. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Well,” Mr. Berrington continued, “ how did 
Alex get it? How did he know that you had it? ” 

“ I — I told him.” 

“ Now we are getting down to something. You 
told him, with the idea that he would take it away 
from you?” Mr. Berrington leaned forward ex- 
pectantly for the reply. 

There was silence for a full moment; then, 
“ Please, sir, Alex was sort of good to me and it’s 
hard ” Fred paused. 

“Come, come!” Mr. Berrington interrupted. 

“ Alex was the boy’s father, you know, or at least 
the only father he had,” Mr. Owens explained. 

“Yes? That’s too bad,” Mr. Berrington said, 
“ but that is no reason why we shouldn’t straighten 
this thing out. We have been too lenient as it is. 
Well, young man, are you ready? ” 

“If you think I stole it you’re wrong, though 
I don’t see as I’d be any worse off if I had. I 
didn’t tell Alex about it, either, so as he’d steal it. 


170 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

I didn’t know then he’d do anything like 
that.” 

“ But why did you tell him? ” 

“ ’Cause I liked the sound of it. I liked to see 
them open their eyes when I told ’em I was going to 
have all that cash on me.” 

“When did you tell them about it?” Mr. Ber- 
rington asked. 

“ The night before.” 

A light began to dawn on Mr. Berrington. “ Oh, 
ho! You boasted that you’d have big sums in your 
possession at a certain time the next day; is that 
it?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ And this man met you and took it away from 
you and you were afraid to come back and tell us; 
is that it?” 

“ He took it away from me, but he took me, too, 
and I couldn’t come back. Please, please don’t 
make me answer any more questions. Lock me up 
or send me away or do anything you like, only don’t 
make me talk about it.” 

“ Well, I guess you needn’t talk any more just 
now,” Mr. Berrington spoke more kindly than he 


Questions and Answers 


171 

had before. “ Suppose you go back to work for a 
while, all three of you, while I think this thing 
over.” 

“I?” Fred interrupted, his eyes brightening a 
trifle. “ I go back to work? At my old job? ” 

“ Yes, guess you might as well for the present. 
And you too, Quigg; unless you’ve decided to join 
the Burns detective agency.” 

After the boys had left the room, Mr. Berring- 
ton turned to Mr. Owens, “ Do you know, I 
couldn’t help liking the way that lad tried to be 
loyal to his folks. He’d make a good American if 
he had a chance, if he were shown the big things 
and the right ideals to which he ought to be lo^al.” 


CHAPTER XIX 


FRED VISITS PROMISE HALL 

I T was some days after Jimmy’s great adventure 
before he was able to visit Promise Hall, but at 
length came the night when he was free to go. 

“ Don’t you want to go with me? ” he asked of 
Fred, who was now living with the Quiggs on a fairly 
permanent arrangement, having accepted their sug- 
gestion that he share Jimmy’s room and contribute 
to the household treasury as board money a small 
weekly sum. 

“ No, not to-night. I’m going down to the O. B. L. 
Haven’t seen the bunch for the dickens of a time.” 

Jimmy protested. “ Shouldn’t think you’d want 
to see them. I haven’t any use for that crowd. 

You wouldn’t have, either, if ” He stopped, 

wondering if it were wise, after all, to tell Fred of 
the effort that had been made to enlist the^. B. L. 
in his behalf. ^ 

“If what?” Fred asked. 

172 


Fred Visits Promise Hall 173 

Jimmy saw that he had gone too far to retreat. 
“ If you knew how they acted when I tried to get 
them to look you up.” 

‘‘ Probably I would be sore,” Fred returned some- 
what bitterly, “ but don’t tell me about it. What’s 
the use? ” 

“ You come along with me and forget the O. B. 
L.,” Jimmy began again, but Fred checked him. 

“ You’ve got a girl up there, haven’t you? You 
don’t want me along, anyhow. I’ll go some other 
time.” 

Jimmy seized upon the words. “ Very good, I’U 
hold you to that.” 

In the days of Jimmy’s absence the “ building of 
the ship ” had progressed rapidly. The hull of the 
miniature vessel was now complete and the amateur 
carpenters were being given directions as to the mast 
and rigging. The boys’ enthusiasm had mounted as 
the boat began to take shape before their eyes. 
They had been brought into more intimate rela- 
tions with one period of American life than they 
realized. Wholly unsuspected interests had been 
awakened, and several of the young workers were 


174 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

finding history a far more entertaining subject than 
they had supposed it could be. 

“ What are we going to do next? ” Jimmy asked 
the boy nearest him. “ This job is nearly finished.” 

“ You’ve been missing it,” came the irrelevant 
answer. “Where have you been?” 

“Away! But I say, what are we going to do 
next? ” 

“ We’re the construction division. We’ve got to 
always be building things. Next we build a setting 
for Washington’s inauguration.” 

“ Are they going to have that?” 

“Yes! And they’re going to have the as- 
sassination of Lincoln, and a scene in front of a 
plantation cabin when the slaves are set free, and 
something from the war with Germany and lots of 
other things besides.” 

And so Promise Hall’s pageant “ America ” grew, 
a panorama of the high lights in American history 
worked out by boys and girls of every nationality to 
whom that history was an unread book and who, 
as they hammered and sawed and cut and painted, 
grasped for the first time something of the ideals 
which had actuated the founders and which had 


Fred Visits Promise Hall 175 

guided those who had followed them in the shaping 
of American destiny. 

“ First I’m an Indian and then I’m a little slave 
girl — that’s because I’ve got my face all stained up 
for being an Indian — and then I’m a Red Cross 
nurse, and at the end I’m just one of the crowd,” 
Helen confided to Jimmy one night on their way 
home. “ I’ve got plenty of time to make the 
changes. What are you going to be?” 

“ One of Columbus’ sailors and a boy in khaki ; 
that’s all I know about,” Jimmy replied. 

“ Of course, you’ll be in the end; everybody’s in 
that.” 

“ That’s what they all say, but what’s the end? ” 
“ I don’t know exactly, myself,” Helen answered. 
“ I know we all go on and march off, but I don’t 
know what we’re supposed to be. They’ll tell us 
in time, though. Is Fred Garson going to be in it? ” 
“ I guess not. He keeps saying he’ll come down 
with me some night, but he never seems to. He’s 
always going over to the Office Boys’ League.” 

“ They haven’t found Alex yet, have they? ” 

“ No,” Jimmy said. “ I think that bothers 


176 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

Fred, too. He sort of feels that until they get him 
he’s kind of under suspicion, though Mr. Berring- 
ton told him he didn’t hold him responsible any 
more. He gave him a terrible stiff talking to, how- 
ever, about giving away company information. You 
see if Fred hadn’t had so much to say he wouldn’t 
have got into all that trouble.” 

“ No, nor would you, but then ” — and Helen 
smiled at him shyly — “ you wouldn’t have been 
able to show what a fine detective you are and what 
a hero.” 

“What are you doing? Jollying me? Don’t 
talk that way. I’m no hero;” but though he de- 
nied it he liked to hear the words from Helen. 

It was not until the day before the presentation 
of the pageant that Fred was finally induced to visit 
Promise Hall. 

“ You must go to-night,” Jimmy had said at sup- 
per time, and Fred had capitulated without his usual 
arguments and excuses. 

“ We’re going right through the thing from start 
to finish. Of course, there won’t be the fancy cos- 
tumes and all the nice fixings, but it will be interest- 


Fred Visits Promise Hall 177 

ing and you can sit down in the front row and watch 
us. I’ll tell you the story of it on the way over.” 

Jimmy’s running comment on the meaning of the 
pageant made up in dramatic quality what it lacked 
in historical authenticity. It furnished the necessary 
key to Fred’s understanding of the pictures which 
passed in rapid review before his eyes. He sat al- 
most motionless during the long rehearsal, hundreds 
of questions rushing upon him. What made Co- 
lumbus so ready to endure hardships, so eager to 
push ahead? There wasn’t anything in it for him. 
Why was Washington fighting with the Colonists 
when he could have had a much easier time on the 
other side? Why was Lincoln ready to sacrifice 
everything to set the slaves free? Did these men 
really do these things? Or was this only a story? 
He had heard, in a vague way, of the events before, 
but he had never seriously considered them. 

His reverie was interrupted by Jimmy’s arrival. 
“ That’s all we’re going to do to-night,” Jimmy ex- 
plained. “ That’s everything, anyhow, except the 
grand flare-up at the end. We don’t have to re- 
hearse that. How’d you like it? ” 

“ All right. But is it supposed to be true? ” 


178 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Why, of course it’s true.” 

“And that Mr. Lincoln, he was just a country 
boy?” 

“ Certainly.” 

“ And he did become President and was killed? ” 

Jimmy regarded Fred with undisguised amaze- 
ment. “ You mean to say you didn’t know that? ” 

“ I’d heard it, but I never paid any special at- 
tention. You coming home now? ” 

“ Don’t you want to look around this place first? ” 

Fred was really eager to explore the building, but 
he concealed the fact and expressed outwardly only 
mild interest in the rooms and their equipment until 
they came to the gymnasium. 

“ Gee ! I’d like to see if I could work my way 
across the room on those swinging rings,” he said, 
watching one boy as he swung out and worked from 
ring to ring until he reached the other side of the 
room and then, without dropping to the floor, just 
as easily returned. 

“ Try it,” Jimmy advised. “ I can’t do it. I 
have to drop about the middle.” 

Fred hesitated for a moment and then, with a 
self-conscious laugh, reached for the first ring. 


Fred Visits Promise Hall 179 

“ Here goes,” he said as he pulled himself up and 
swung out. But after the third ring he dropped and 
came back somewhat sheepishly. “ I thought I 
could do it. ’Tain’t so easy as it looks. I’ll bet I 
could do it if I practiced.” 

“ Join Promise Hall and you can practice all you 
want to.” 

“They let you come down here free?” 

“ Of course they do, if you work in one of the 
clubs.” 

“ That’s it. I knew there was something about 
it I wouldn’t like. What do you mean — work in 
one of the clubs? ” 

“ Oh, you have to learn to do something. There 
are debating clubs and good-citizen clubs and clubs 
where you make things with tools. You can go into 
the one you like best. Why don’t you come in with 
us?” 

“ I’ll think about it.” 

On the way home Fred hardly spoke. They had 
almost come up to the door when he said : 

“ Let’s walk a little while. I’ve got something 
I want to think about.” 

“ Can’t you think inside? It’s getting late.” 


i8o Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ No, and I may want to talk.” 

Jimmy said nothing, but swung in beside him and 
they covered several blocks before Fred spoke. 
Then he burst out with : “ I’ll have to do it. Lin- 

coln would have done it and all the rest of ’em.” 

“ What are you talking about? ” 

It was a full minute before Fred answered: 
“ Jimmy, we must stop it and that’s all there is to 
it. To-morrow’s the day Alex had set for his bomb- 
ing. I know, because I overheard him say once 
’twould be a nice surprise party for Columbus Day.” 

“ Stop it ! I wish we could,” Jimmy agreed. 
‘‘ But how? And where?” 

“I — think — we could — all right.” The 
words came apparently with difficulty. “ I know 
where Alex is.” 

“ You do ? Well, why didn’t you say so before ? ” 

“ I only just found out for sure last night. I’ve 
been watching a place where I knew he used to go 
to work on — his things.” 

“You mean his bombs?” 

“ I didn’t know that’s what they were then; but I 
guess there’s no doubt about it. I thought maybe 
around Columbus Day there might be something do- 


Fred Visits Promise Hall i8i 

ing — and there was last night. It was lit up and he 
was there; I saw his shadow — I know!” 

“ Did he see you? ” 

“ No, I was out of sight ” 

“ But, great guns, why didn’t you tell of it this 
morning? ” 

“ Don’t ask me. I don’t know why. I couldn’t 
for some reason or other, but after to-night it seems 
easier.” 

“ It may be too late to do anything now.” 

“ It mustn’t be; that’s all! ” 

“ What’ll we do? ” Jimmy stopped, realizing that 
they were still walking in the direction that led away 
from home. 

“ I’ve thought that all out. You go home. I’ll go 
to the police station. There’s one not far from here 
and I’ll tell ’em where I think they’ll find Alex.” 

“ Don’t you want me to go with you? ” 

“ No, please, I’d rather do it alone. Your 
mother’ll be worried, too. I’ll be back soon if 
they’ll let me go. I hope I won’t have to see Alex 
caught.” 

Almost before Jimmy realized it, Fred had turned 
and had run up a side street and was lost in the 
darkness. 


CHAPTER XX 


“ AMERICA 


BOUT an hour later Fred returned. Jimmy 



had gone to bed, but he was not asleep and the 
minute that Fred came into the room he sat up in 
bed with an excited, “ What happened? ” 

Fred threw himself down into a chair wearily. 
“ They had already caught him,” he answered. 

It was dark and Jimmy could not see Fred’s face, 
but he knew by his voice that he was sick at heart. 
He slid out of bed and went over to him and sat on 
the arm of the chair, his hand resting affectionately 
on Fred’s shoulder. 

“Well, that’s what you wanted, isn’t it?” he 
said. “ Tell me about it.” 

“ There isn’t anything to tell. They had 
caught him before I gave them the facts, been watch- 
ing the house for a week, knew all about the bombs 
and everything.” Fred’s voice trailed off into 
silence. 


182 


America** 


183 

“What did they say to you at the station?” 
Jimrriy was all eager interest. 

“ They told me I was a little fool for not thinking 
the police would fojlow up a lead like that. Told 
me they’d not only been watching the house but me 
too, to see whether I was playing fair with them or 
not. Hope now they’re satisfied.” He stopped 
suddenly and there was a sound suspiciously like a 
sob in his throat ineffectively covered by a cough. 

Jimmy slapped him on the back. “ Cheer up, 
cheer up ! ” he cried. 

“ That’s easy to say. But Alex was half decent 
to me, you know, and I — I can’t help feeling sorry.” 
He was glad that the room was dark, for there were 
tears in his eyes. 

The ensuing silence was broken by Jimmy. 

“ But don’t you see it’s worked out the very best 
way it could? You didn’t give Alex up to the po- 
lice. He got caught himself and yet you were ready 
to do what was right. I should think you’d be 
darned happy thinking about it that way.” 

They sat there in the quiet of the night for a 
few moments, thinking a great deal, talking only 
little. 


184 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

To Fred everything seemed hopeless and unin- 
teresting. He sensed, as never before, his complete 
loneliness. He realized the viciousness of the life 
of the men and women among whom he had lived, 
yet that life was all he knew, and he felt for it as 
one feels for old familiar things. 

Cut loose from the little circle in which he had 
moved and from which were derived his ideas of 
the proprieties — and he felt that he was now cut 
loose — he did not know which way to turn. He 
would have to begin all over again. He would have 
to be shown and it was not his nature to enjoy being 
shown. He wanted to show others. He was a 
stranger in a strange land — no more so than for- 
merly, but now he knew it. 

“ Say, I think we’ve sat here dreaming long 
enough,” Jimmy rose and stretched himself. “ If 
you don’t get into your pajamas and into bed inside 
of three minutes I’m going to wrastle you. I think 
I could do you up.” Jimmy indeed seemed no mean 
figure as he stood there challengingly. 

“ Most likely you could,” Fred agreed. 

“ But wait until you get into Promise Hall gym — 
look at that muscle,” Jimmy thrust forward an arm. 


^^America^^ 


185 

“ and that/’ and a leg protruded from the loosely 
fitting pajama and pointed in his direction, “ that 
comes from the horizontal bars and the track and — 
and the other things. Oh, we’ll show you down 
there at Promise Hall. But, say one minute’s gone; 
get busy.” 

And Fred dispiritedly obeyed. 

Promise Hall on the night of the pageant 
held a record-breaking audience. Mothers, fathers, 
friends — all were there. It was an audience for 
the most part of older folk as the younger element, 
to the number of three hundred odd, were in the play 
itself. Fred appreciated this fact as he glanced 
around the auditorium, and again he felt out of it. 
Why should he be in a fourth-row seat instead of 
behind the curtain with the others of his own age? 
The answer — he hadn’t been seeking one, but it 
came to him in a flash, made him stop and think. 
He wasn’t in there with the others, dressed up in all 
the toggery of which he caught occasional glimpses, 
simply because he had chosen not to be. It had been 
suggested that he join the pageant forces; Jimmy 
had urged him to. He had turned them all down. 


i86 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

It occurred to him then that perhaps this business of 
choosing what to do and what not to do was more 
important than he had ever supposed it was. Any- 
how, he guessed he didn’t want to be in the pageant. 
It probably was a tiresome old thing. Yes, he was 
glad he hadn’t chosen to be in it. 

But it wasn’t tiresome, he found, when the cur- 
tain parted. Where the rehearsal of the night be- 
fore had been entertaining for a moment and soon 
forgotten, there was something about this, some- 
thing impressive, that made you hold your breath 
for fear of disturbing the reality of it. This story 
of America and of the evolution of American ideals, 
presented in brilliant colors, with the clash of con- 
tests and with the great figures of all time — Co- 
lumbus, Washington, Lafayette, Lincoln, Grant, 
Roosevelt, Pershing, playing their parts — held him 
tense and absorbed from the start. Here were men 
who did things, men who were leaders. Here was 
the way they did them. It was a chronicle of great 
leadership, and leadership was a subject he loved to 
hear about. 

The pageant came to a close with a symbolic spec- 
tacle. High on a golden dais and against a back- 


America*^ 


187 

ground of sky blue, stood America, a girl gowned 
in white, her loosely flowing hair caught together 
with bands of red, white, and blue. The dais was 
supported at each of its four corners by four stal- 
wart young men representing Justice, Honor, Cour- 
age, and Loyalty. 

This was the opening picture. America’s face 
was turned toward the future, suggested by the ris- 
ing sun, just a gleam of red in the far distance. 

After a moment’s pause, in which the beauty of 
the scene impressed itself upon the hushed audience, 
America’s supporters, with rhythmic step, bore her 
slowly toward the East. America stood with eager 
eyes scanning the horizon, assurance that she could 
successfully cope with the unknown depicted in her 
erect and confident bearing. 

Behind her swarmed the citizens of the world, 
who, as soon as America moved, showed themselves 
ready to follow in her direction and to acknowledge 
her leadership. Soon the stage was filled with them, 
their hands outstretched toward the being who 
typified for them freedom and happiness and growth. 
Upon this picture the curtain fell. 

Fred had not understood it all as clearly as did 


1 88 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

those who had taken part in the play. He had not 
had the benefit of the careful explanation of the pag- 
eant leaders, who had lost no opportunity to make 
plain the message of the piece. He did not appre- 
ciate, for example, the full significance of America’s 
supporters — Justice, Honor, Courage, and Loyalty, 
nor see that had one of these fallen, America’s 
progress would have been retarded. But he had out 
of it gathered that there were worthy ideals which 
upheld American life and there had been born in him 
the inspiration to know more of these ideals, what 
they were, what they would mean to him. He had 
been deeply moved by the scene, and while he had 
been physically held to his fourth-row seat he had in 
spirit been up there with the others holding out 
his hands and saying, “ Show me the way.” 


CHAPTER XXI 


BACK ON THE JOB 

^^X^^HATEVER happened to you last night, 
^ » Fred? ” Jimmy asked the next morning at 
breakfast. “ I looked all over for you after the 
show. Didn’t you stay for the dancing?” 

“ Not for long. I waited until I saw you and 
Helen twirling around out in the middle of the floor 
and then I lit out. I am not strong for dancing 
myself.” 

“ Oh, we had a bully time. You should have 
stayed. There was lemonade and cakes, too.” 

Fred greeted this announcement with silence, de- 
voting all his attention to his toast and oatmeal. 

“ How did you like the pageant?” Mrs. Quigg 
asked. 

“ All right,” came the unenthusiastic reply. 

“ I thought it was more than all right,” Mrs. 
Quigg added. “ It seemed to me wonderful.” 

“ Those of us who were in it had a good time, 

i8g 


190 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

anyhow,” Jimmy said. “We’d vote for doing the 
thing right over again, work and all.” 

“ Do you suppose you will do it over again? 
Something like that, I mean,” with a little more show 
of interest on Fred’s part. 

“ Surest thing you know. Maybe not a pageant, 
but we’ll be getting up something. I think you 
ought to join. You aren’t going to hang out with 
the O. B. L. crowd, are you? ” 

“ I can’t.” 

“You can’t? Why?” 

“ All busted up.” 

“ Did it go to pieces on account of that striking 
business? ” 

“ Yes; that didn’t work, and the fellows got sore 
and that was the end of it.” 

“ It’s a good thing,” was Jimmy’s dry comment. 

“ Oh, I don’t know now. If that club had been 
managed right it wouldn’t have been so bad.” 

“ No, of course, if they’d had any sense behind it. 
Now, the Berrington Boys’ Association, that’s dif- 
ferent. That stands for something, and look how 
it’s booming. Football teams and parties and 


Back on the Job 


191 

everything. It’s helping the fellows along a lot, 
too. See what it did for us ! But in the O. B. L. 
each fellow was out for himself and himself only; 
no club action, no spirit.” 

“ I agree with you, I agree with you,” Fred said 
wearily; “ but it could have been different.” 

This was apparently the thought that he took with 
him to the office and that he kept with him all during 
the morning. At noon, when he joined Jimmy for 
his stock-room luncheon, he broached the subject 
again. 

“ You know I’m wondering why we couldn’t have 
something like Promise Hall down where the O. B. 
L. used to be.” 

Jimmy considered the question before replying. 
“ I don’t get you,” he said at length. 

‘‘ All I mean is, why couldn’t a club to do things, 
to make things, say, be started down there? Have 
teachers and everything. I think we could get some 
of the old guys in it.” 

“ It would cost a lot of money. You’d have to 
have tools.” Jimmy was not usually skeptical, but 
he saw many obstacles in the way of this plan. 


192 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ The best thing for you to do is to come in to Prom- 
ise Hall yourself.” He stopped short, struck with 
an idea. 

“ I tell you what you could do,” he went on. 
“You could form a club of O. B. L. gazabos, you 
seem to like them so much, and bring them all into 
Promise Hall. It’s made up, you know, of differ- 
ent clubs. Most likely you could arrange to meet 
sometimes down in the O. B. L. room and have the 
teacher come there — except only when you wanted 
to use Promise Hall tools. You might start it that 
way, but I’d bet you’d soon be up at Promise Hall 
all of the time.” 

“ I wonder if that could be done? ” Fred showed 
a growing interest. 

“ Of course It could. Then you’d have a club that 
would be managed right and ’twould go. You’d 
have to choose some branch of work. I’m going 
in for manual training myself, cabinet-making sec- 
tion. Learn how to make fancy furniture, you know, 
by hand. But there are lots of other things. You 
could have your choice. Only you have to take one 
kind of work if you’re going to get the gym and all 
that goes with it.” 


Back on the Job 


193 

“ And you think I could be the leader of this 
club?’’ 

“ Yes.” 

Silence while Jimmy finished his cake, then : 
“ You come up to Promise Hall and join to-night. 
Tell ’em you want to start a new club, that you’ll 
have a dozen members. That’ll fix it. Then you’ll 
have to work like the dickens to make ’em keep up 
to scratch.” 

“ Oh, I can do that all right; I’ll make ’em the 
best bunch yet.” 

“ Then you’ll join to-night? ” 

“ I guess so.” 

“ That’s fine. We’re going to have lots of sport, 
I can see.” 

“ I’ll give it a trial anyhow. I believe in trying 
anything once. If I don’t like Promise Hall I can 
get out easy enough.” 

“You’ll like it all right!” Jimmy nodded his 
head sagely. 

His prophecy was more than fulfilled by the devel- 
opments of the next few months which saw Fred’s 
club organized and incorporated as a part of the 


194 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

great settlement house and before long one of its 
most active and promising units. 

That afternoon Jimmy was set to work on a print- 
ing job. “ Now, be careful, young man,” Bertrand 
jocularly advised him, “ and get the right frames 
this time.” He clapped him on the shoulder as he 
admonished him. 

Jimmy looked up, a twinkle in his eyes answering 
one in Bertrand’s. 

“ This little circular,” he said, “ is going to be 
the best printed little circular this department’s put 
out. You just wait and see.” He started the press 
and began to feed it the paper, his cheery whistle ris- 
ing clear above the whir of the machinery. 

“ Feeling happy, old boy? ” Bertrand called across 
at him. But Jimmy did not hear. Had he heard, 
his answer would have been strongly in the affirma- 
tive. Life was good, he knew, and a great content- 
ment had come into his soul. 

Helen Platt dropped in on him before the after- 
noon was out. 

“ I want to get,” she said importantly, “ five 
hundred circulars of the Bee Book.” She asked 


Back on the Job 


195 

Bertrand for them, but she knew he would refer 
her to Jimmy. 

“ Here, you Quigg,” he called out loudly. 
“ Stop that infernal thing and get this young lady 
some circulars. Your bookkeeping is so elaborate I 
wouldn’t know where to find ’em.” 

Jimmy consulted a memorandum book. 
“ They’re out here. Miss Platt,” he said with a 
slight emphasis on the “ Miss.” 

“ Very well, Mr. Quigg,” came the equally 
proper reply, as Helen followed him out of the 
ofEce. 

When they were out of sight of Bertrand they 
laughed together at their observance of the pro- 
prieties. 

“ I haven’t seen you since last night,” Jimmy ob- 
served. 

“ No, you haven’t,” Helen agreed. “ Wasn’t it 
wonderful? Say, have you been promoted?” 

“Promoted? Me? No. Why?” 

“ I thought you said you were an office boy.” 

“ I am.” 

“ You don’t look much like one to me, more like 
a printer’s devil, Pd say.” 


196 Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy 

“ Here’s your circulars. Are they too heavy for 
you to carry? ” 

“ I should say not! ” emphatically. She put them 
down on a chair and regarded them. A large white 
space on the top one was too great a temptation. 
She took her pencil and wrote on it : 

JIMMY QUIGG, OFFICE BOY. 

She regarded it critically. 

“ You do so many things besides being an office 
boy,” she said, and she took her pencil again and 
added something after his name. 

“ There,” she said, extending the sheet to him. 

“ Jimmy Quigg, Office Boy, Etc.,” he read. 
Then he looked up at her in a spirit of raillery. 

“ No, ma’am! I’m not an ‘ and so forth.’ I’m 
an office boy, the best office boy that ever was, but 
I never have been, never will be, an ‘and so forth ’ ! ” 

“Very well!” With a suggestion of hauteur 
Helen scratched off the offending letters. She 
picked up the circulars and moved toward the door- 
way in the manner of a grande dame. 


Back on the Job 


197 

“ What do you expect to be, anyway, Mr. 
Quigg?” she asked, pausing at the threshold. 

“ President some day, maybe. I — have hopes 
— hopes of a lot of things.” 

Helen smiled. “ Well, here’re my best wishes 
for the hopes, Jimmy,” she said — and fled. 


THE END 



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